The Triangle region of North Carolina has long been known as a technology innovation center. For the television industry, this has seen Capitol Broadcasting Corp. become a NextGen TV pioneer, with its WRAL-5 and WRAZ-TV at the forefront of the new broadcast TV standard based on ATSC 3.0.
Now, the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill market is the latest to gain access to new technology that the NAB and the nation’s Big Four networks have tried to exterminate.
In a note to “Locast Nation” e-mailed by Chairman and founder David Goodfriend, Locast revealed that it has just launched its donation-based, not-for-profit streaming local TV service in the Raleigh-Durham DMA.
The market is No. 24 in rank and includes Rocky Mount and Fayetteville, N.C., in addition to Mecklenburg County, Va.
“Starting today, Locast users in Raleigh-Durham can now stream 40 local broadcast TV channels across 23 counties,” Goodfriend said.
With major universities located in the market, Goodfriend considers Locast “an invaluable free tool for residents and students to stay informed about major storms and hurricanes, health updates, local news, weather, and sports on local broadcast TV.”
He’s got a point. Today’s university student likely doesn’t have a TV, or if they do use it for OTT or AVOD services. With Locast, access to local TV can be delivered to a user’s phones, tablets, laptops or streaming media devices.
That’s a point of frustration for CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX, as well as the chief lobbying organization for broadcast TV, the National Association of Broadcasters. They want Locast to fork over some form of retransmission consent payment; Goodfriend argues that it is providing a community service by providing what is already available for free through a donation-based service.
While the two sides will likely continue their arguments, perhaps in and out of court, for quite some time, Locast’s donation pitches have accelerated for those receiving their emails. Yes — Locast is available for free, and a donation isn’t required. But, it has made it clear to its users that it must rely on their contributions in order to survive; a $5 suggested monthly “donation,” rather than a service fee, is pitched by Locast.
With entry into Raleigh-Durham, the Locast lineup includes the aforementioned NBC and FOX affiliates, WRAL and WRAZ. It also includes ABC O&O WTVD-11, Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned WLFL-22 and WRDC-28, the CW Network and MyNetworkTV affiliates; PBS North Carolina; and Nexstar Media Group-owned WNCN-17, the CBS affiliate.
Meanwhile, the two-year anniversary of a 27-page filing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Locast will arrive on July 31.
The legal action saw ABC, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., CBS Broadcasting, CBS Studios, Fox Television Stations, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBCUniversal Media, Universal Television and Open 4 Business Productions join together as plaintiffs in filing a lawsuit against Goodfriend and “Sports Fans Coalition NY Inc.” seeking damages and injunctive relief for infringing their exclusive rights under the Copyright Act.
“Unlike licensed cable, satellite, and streaming services, Locast neither obtains Plaintiffs’
permission nor pays for its exploitation of Plaintiffs’ exclusive rights to publicly perform their copyrighted content,” the networks assert. “Instead, Locast simply takes Plaintiffs’ copyrighted content and retransmits it to its registered users at will over the internet.”
In response, Locast counsel David Hosp of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, said, “Locast is an independent, non-profit organization that provides a public service retransmitting free over-the-air broadcasts. Its activities are expressly permitted under the Copyright Act. The fact that no broadcasters have previously filed suit for more than a year and a half suggests that they recognize this. We look forward to defending the claims — and the public’s right to receive transmissions broadcast over the airwaves — in litigation.”
Thus far, Locast has not only survived, but thrived, whereas Aereo — a similar service that predates Locast — did not.
Dennis Wharton, the former EVP/Communications for the broadcast media industry advocacy group, said in 2019, “This firm is thinly disguised as a not-for-profit entity that mirrors failed predecessors Aereo and FilmOn in its bid to legitimize the theft of local TV broadcast signals. Locast is all about gaining a commercial advantage for its backers and others in violation of U.S. copyright law to the detriment of local broadcast TV viewers.”
Two months later, Locast countersued the coalition of TV companies.
And, since January 2020, its market count has risen to 17.
It is only likely to further grow, even with a service provider plan that’s still opposed by the biggest broadcast TV voices in America.
