LoCast Free TV.....anyone use or

[bassman]

know about this?

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/free-local-broadcast-service-locast-now-has-1-4-million-users/

FREE but "donation" of $5/month or more is encouraged.

Limited depending on the area of country you live in also.....

[Alien]

You can just use a cheap antenna (+- $20) with a digital converter and recieve all of your local broadcast stations for free.

[scooperhsd]

Well now- not everybody can get by with a $20 antenna and convertor box. It depends HIGHLY on your location in relation to the stations you are trying to receive. See other forums for more information.

In my "I am not a lawyer, but I have done a lot of reading on this subject" opinion, Locast is on shakey ground at best. Once you cross that boundary into retransmission of broadcast signals, you have entered into a complex world that is driven by money.

[F6Dave]

The best free TV I've seen is Pluto TV.  Over 250 free channels, including many of the channels you pay for with cable or satellite.  All you need is a $25 Roku and an internet connection.

[scooperhsd]

Locast is specifically about local broadcast TV stations.

[..]

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

[F6Dave]

Locast is specifically about local broadcast TV stations.

I've seen ads for several devices a lot like those.  If you read the fine print they are usually nothing but a 'rabbit ear' antenna made to look high tech.

[scooperhsd]

Locast is specifically about local broadcast TV stations.

I've seen ads for several devices a lot like those.  If you read the fine print they are usually nothing but a 'rabbit ear' antenna made to look high tech.

You're not getting the point - Locast (the service) is trying to act like a cable company by retransmitting (over the Internet) Local TV Broadcast stations. This is entirely different from being an OTA antenna dressed up, as you said, as a high tech device. And it is the SERVICE that Locast is providing that has the Big networks coming after them.

[carolinarider09]

I am curious.  If all LoCast is doing is re-broadcasting local TV stations via the internet, why would the local stations care?  Unless LoCast is replacing their commercials with commercials of their own. 

I looked at the website that Britman provided and it shows the stations I should be able to get at my location. 

I have a mast mounted yagi antenna, about 20 feet off the ground with a mast mounted amp.  I still cannot receive one local TV station after they switched to all digital.   Of course there are some trees in the way.  Making it maybe 10 feet higher might make a difference. 

[..]

I am curious.  If all LoCast is doing is re-broadcasting local TV stations via the internet, why would the local stations care?  Unless LoCast is replacing their commercials with commercials of their own. 

I looked at the website that Britman provided and it shows the stations I should be able to get at my location. 

I have a mast mounted yagi antenna, about 20 feet off the ground with a mast mounted amp.  I still cannot receive one local TV station after they switched to all digital.   Of course there are some trees in the way.  Making it maybe 10 feet higher might make a difference. 

I should be able to get some over the air but I'm tucked into the side of a hill. I get nuttin. Quite happy with Amazon and Netflix and Roku and youtube is plenty of entertainment.

News is via my Echo Dot listening to news from around the world and online reading.

[scooperhsd]

As I said, this gets into a big mess of it's own world. I take it you don't subscribe to cable or DBS services that offer the local channels ? Well, the stations (except public TV (PBS)) have the choice to select either "Must Carry" or "Reatransmission consent" from the "cable" / DBS providers. On a major network owned or affiliate station - they will usually choose Retransmission Consent, with the terms usually being so much money per subscriber in their market plus maybe other considerations, wile smaller stations may choose "Must Carry" (which means exactly that - cable / DBS "Must Carry" that station). Further mucking this up is the fact that Must carry only applies to the Primary station (usually -1 on a digital OTA tuner).

What the Locast service is doing is doing the Local TV stations.

See, I told you this is complicated. If you are /were a Dish Network subscriber for any reasonable amount of time, you have probably seen what happens when the station revokes "Retransmission Consent".