In a boon for cord cutters, a little-known nonprofit now under legal fire from some of America’s largest media companies expands its free television service to Tampa Bay today.
Locast will make 45 channels of locally-broadcast streaming TV available to millions more people through its app and at locast.org. The channel lineup is meant to be identical to what’s available free over the air with a digital antenna – if you had a pristine signal.
The offerings include local FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates, several PBS stations, and channels such as CourtTV, MeTV and The Florida Channel, which broadcasts state government proceedings. Spanish language stations Telemundo and Univision are included.
The service is available across what Nielsen labels the Tampa/St. Petersburg TV market, including Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Tampa Bay marks Locast’s 19th U.S. market.
The app is available on iPhone, Android and Google devices, as well as set-top boxes like Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick.
Locast founder David Goodfriend, a lawyer, lobbyist and former staffer in the Bill Clinton White House, said he started it as a public service, to ensure those who can’t afford cable or can’t get a clear antenna signal have access to free, local TV.
Federal law says that stations must broadcast their signals free to the public.
“There is a lot going on that requires people to stay in touch,” Goodfriend said. “You’ve got hurricane season, a health crisis, and unfortunately, unrest in our neighborhoods. If there was ever a time when Tampa and St. Petersburg needed access to local news and information, this is it.”
Because the service streams everything on local networks, including live sports, Goodfriend said it’s also a good way for Buccaneers fans “to see if Tom Brady still has it."
Locast is allowed to operate, Goodfriend said, under a 1976 federal statute allowing nonprofits to boost TV signals to allow wider access to the public. He said Locast as essentialy doing the same, just with the internet.
On a building somewhere in Tampa, a Locast antenna is pulling in TV signals, sending them down to servers in the basement, and converting it all to a digital stream.
In July, the major broadcast networks banded together to sue Locast, and Goodfriend personally. In the complaint, Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC say the nonprofit is “not the Robin Hood of television,” but has “decidedly commercial purposes.”
They say Locast is not only violating their copyrights, but devaluing the fees networks collect from cable and other pay-TV companies that carry their channels.
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“Locast illegally and unfairly competes with live TV streaming services that pay for permission to retransmit broadcast television," the complaint says.
Goodfriend said he welcomes a trial in the matter, and is bolstered by an earlier legal fight over television.
Years ago, he founded the Sports Fans Coalition, which he said took on the NFL and lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to end the sports blackout rule preventing local games from airing on TV if stadiums weren’t full.
Goodfriend said it was appaling that people whose taxes paid for stadiums couldn’t watch their team without buying expensive tickets.
In 2014, the FCC voted unanimously to end the sports blackout rule.
“Sometimes the little guy does win,” Goodfriend said.
Locast is supported by donations. Every 15 minutes, the broadcast is interrupted by a 15-second call for donations in the amount of $5 per month. Those who sign up for that amount can watch Locast without the interruptions.
Locast was founded in 2018 with financial backing from an unnamed investor, who like Goodfriend, is a former Dish Network executive.
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June 03, 2020 at 08:32AM
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Free streaming TV arrives in Tampa Bay today - Tampa Bay Times
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