LocalBTV, a free local broadcast TV streaming service owned by Didja, is partnering with FreeCast to bring its content to SelectTV customers.
SelectTV, a subscription multichannel service with more than 150 live channels, will now provide access to LocalBTV, which is available in 21 U.S. television markets including New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Houston.
Didja said it expects LocalBTV to be available in 70 to 100 markets by the end of 2022 and last week hinted at a partnership that will be key for expansion.
"At FreeCast, we've been focused on this challenge for a long time: when you cut that cord, how do you get live, local sports, news, and weather on the same screen, in the same place, with your online streaming content. For a long time, our solution was literally to send our customers an antenna. It's that important. But with LocalBTV, we've got a much more elegant solution that doesn't need any additional hardware," said FreeCast CEO William Mobley in a statement.
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"We and our broadcast TV channel partners are delighted to be included in FreeCast's SelectTV as our first 3rd party app distribution partner," said Didja CEO Jim Long in a statement. "SelectTV understands the unique needs of the antenna TV consumer and brings a much-needed improvement to streaming content aggregation and navigation."
LocalBTV has been able to avoid the legal troubles of similar services like Locast and Aereo by securing permission from local broadcast signal owners for inclusion in the service. So far that approach has meant LocalBTV carries PBS, some digital networks and foreign-language channels, but not major broadcast networks from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
LocalBTV is available on Android and iOS devices along with Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Android TV, LG TVs and on the web. The company plans to soon launch on app for Samsung and Vizio connected TV platforms.