Locast, a free broadcast television streaming service, has added Columbus, Ohio to its list of available markets as it closes in on 3 million users.
The Columbus, Ohio, TV market—which includes the cities of Bucyrus, Chillicothe, Marion, Mt. Vernon, Washington Court House and Zanesville—is Locast’s 34th market. It will offer more than 45 local TV channels in the Columbus DMA including WCMH NBC 4, WSYX ABC 6, WBNS CBS 10, WTTE FOX 28, PBS, PBS Kids, as well as DABL, Telemundo, Antenna, CourtTV, Movies, MeTV, TrueCrime, CW, Circle, BOUNCE, Quest, LAFF, COMET, HSN, GRIT and Charge!
After the latest launch, Locast says it now has more than 2.8 million registered users nationwide and that it reaches more than half of the U.S. population.
Locast is a non-profit service that relies on a statute within the Copyright Act to retransmit local broadcast signals. The company asks its users to contribute $5 per month – once they do, they’ll stop seeing donation requests every 15 minutes while they’re using the service.
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Users can potentially get around the donation through the Locast Cares Program, which allows users who cannot donate financially to watch their local TV channels without receiving donation-request interruptions. The organization said the program is open in Columbus to the first 25,000 applicants and available for one year. Students, first responders and low- income households, among others, can apply.
As Locast grows, it’s facing a lawsuit from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, who in April sought to have a court reject Locast’s defense.
The broadcasters sued Locast in 2019, alleging the service infringes upon exclusive rights under the Copyright Act. The lawsuit contends that Locast is not merely boosting broadcast signals for those who can’t receive them. It accuses Locast of operating with its own commercial benefit in mind as well as the commercial benefit of large pay TV operators including DirecTV and Dish Network.
In a letter sent late last week to U.S District Court Judge Louis Stanton, the broadcasters outline why they believe Locast’s defense fails. They allege that Locast’s transmissions can’t be considered local since they are the internet and argue that the fact that the service uses geo-fencing to limit its reach “only underscores that its service is not inherently localized.”
Locast’s legal representatives also sent a letter to the court to argue that its service should be exempt from copyright liability since it only offers secondary transmissions, it doesn’t qualify as a cable system and it is run by Sports Fans Coalition NY, a non-profit.
“Plaintiffs have been unable to quantify or identify any specific impact on retransmission consent negotiations,” Locast wrote. “Even if they could, the bulk of evidence shows that the Locast service likely harms pay TV platforms because it encourages cord cutting…”