Locast adds Atlanta and Phoenix

[Dutch_12078]

I received this email today from the non-profit OTA streaming service Locast:

"Today, we went live in Atlanta and Phoenix and we're excited to be serving Atlantans and Phoenicians local weather reports, emergency information, and professional and college football."

"Locast is now in 15 markets across the country, serving almost 40 million TV Households. Hundreds of thousands of those fans have enjoyed local news, weather and sports on Locast. We’re thrilled to offer Locast in two more markets."

www.locast.org

[Dutch_12078]

chuckbear wrote:
"15" markets in a country as large as the U.S. is pretty puny. This service would really have to expand in a big way to make it very beneficial. It's called marketing speak. Chuck

Given that they started with just one market, NYC, I'd say they've made significant progress over the past two years. They estimate it costs on average about $250,000 to bring a new market online, and that takes a lot of $5/mo donations. Sometimes they get corporate donations that speed up adding a given market though. That happened with Rapid City and Sioux Falls, SD, two smaller markets that were well down on the priority list until the residents and businesses got together to move them up.

[Tom_M1]

But it's 15 of the largest population markets and according their web site, 34% of the US market.

[chuckbear]

"15" markets in a country as large as the U.S. is pretty puny. This service would really have to expand in a big way to make it very beneficial. It's called marketing speak. Chuck

[Dutch_12078]

Basically Locast is an online streaming version of OTA translator services that receive an OTA signal on one channel and retransmit it on a different channel to reach fringe areas with poor tower LOS. Locast is a service of Sports Fans Coalition NY, a 501c3 non-profit organization that depends on donations to cover their operating costs.

[Tom_M1]

My experience with Locast:
You can only watch a station if you are located near the city they are broadcasting from.
If you don't donate at least $5/month you can only watch for about 15 minutes at a time.

To get around the location issue, I installed an add-on called Location Guard.

Link to web site:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/location-guard/

Quote from site:
"Hide your geographic location from websites. Report a fake location with the addition of random noise in order to protect your privacy. Per site settings with three configurable levels of accuracy or even the possibility to use a fixed location."

I will be heading for Arizona soon and there are some spots where I have no TV reception but do have internet. Another benefit is I will be able to watch Vikings football if they are playing in one of the Locast cities. Go Vikes!

[hypoxia]

Is the only point of this service to have local TV on a computer or when travelling? All I have to do is turn the TV on to get local TV, although rural folks don't always get a good signal.

[Bill_Satellite]

Since I already have unlimited internet on a MiFi, the free service would indeed be free.

[Dutch_12078]

K Charles wrote:
TV for free is not free if you need the internet to use it.

Yep, if the only reason you have Internet is to watch Locast's streams...

[K_Charles]

TV for free is not free if you need the internet to use it.

[Lwiddis]

A possible option. TY