For the past few months or so, I've been using Locast, which streams local TV channels online. Locast is (or, was?) a non-profit service, so it could be used for free, but they took donations. I thought Locast was pretty cool, because I don't have cable TV or any premium TV service, and although I can get local TV over the air, sometimes my over-the-air reception isn't good for some channels. With Locast, I was able to watch all local TV channels without any reception issues, for cheap.

I guess Locast has been the target of a lawsuit recently. Locast sent a notification a couple days ago that there was a court ruling that said they couldn't request donations anymore. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that Locast had a 'free' tier where it would interrupt the stream asking for donations, and people who had donated didn't get interruptions.

https://bit.ly/3DGS6Us
Full article link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/broadcasters-score-big -legal-win-against-locast-a-popular-app-streaming-network-tv-1235006305/

I feel like this is a bummer. I'm a bit of a cord cutter (I've never had my own cable or premium TV service), as I feel like I don't watch enough TV to feel like it's worth paying for premium TV, though I like watching local news & game shows etc..

Nightfox

Re: Locast suspends operations
By: Nightfox to All on Thu Sep 02 2021 09:28 am

I guess Locast has been the target of a lawsuit recently. Locast sent a notification a couple days ago that there was a court ruling that said they couldn't request donations anymore. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that Locast had a 'free' tier where it would interrupt the stream asking for donations, and people who had donated didn't get interruptions.

I hope they can keep going. When I cut our cable back in 2017, locast seemed like a great way to get local news. The only problem was that they didn't think my location on the coast was served by the San Francisco/San Jose stations. I'd fire up my VPN to a San Francisco exit node and that did the trick. I was tempted to find a way to route locast over the VPN and route Netflix over the WAN, but it's been on the bottom of my list.
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Hello Nightfox!

02 Sep 21 09:28, you wrote to all:

I guess Locast has been the target of a lawsuit recently. Locast sent
a notification a couple days ago that there was a court ruling that
said they couldn't request donations anymore. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that Locast had a 'free' tier where it
would interrupt the stream asking for donations, and people who had donated didn't get interruptions.

Locast's free TV service shuts down after losing copyright ruling.


https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/locasts-free-tv-service-is-in-peril-as-big-4-networks-win-copyright-ruling/




Vorlon


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Re: Locast suspends operations
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Thu Sep 02 2021 11:58 am

I hope they can keep going. When I cut our cable back in 2017, locast seemed like a great way to get local news. The only problem was that they didn't think my location on the coast was served by the San Francisco/San Jose stations. I'd fire up my VPN to a San Francisco exit node and that did the trick. I was tempted to find a way to route locast over the VPN and route Netflix over the WAN, but it's been on the bottom of my list.

Yeah, I hope Locast can find a way to start operating again. I'm back to relying on over-the-air reception, which for me is sometimes good and sometimes bad. There's one channel I like to watch for local news that sometimes has a bad signal and doesn't come in, and another channel (which has Jeopardy which I'd like to watch sometimes) which doesn't come in at all most of the time.

It's cool that Roku and Plex offer free streaming live TV, but I'd still like to watch my local news stations and networks that broadcast certain other shows.

Nightfox