Locast Now Available in 24 Markets as They Add Indianapolis to Roster of Cities With Access

Locast is now available in the Indianapolis TV market. The nonprofit local broadcast TV streaming service announced they are now available in 32 additional counties, which includes the cities of Bloomington and Muncie. This is the streamer’s 24th market, making Locast available to more than 148 million people across the nation.

“For the first time, more than three million residents in Indianapolis and surrounding cities will be able to watch their local TV stations on their phones, tablets, laptops or streaming media devices,” said Locast founder and chairman David Goodfriend. “When dealing with health, safety, or participation in our democracy through voting, Locast performs a critical public service by increasing access to local broadcast TV channels.”

Locast offers information on local and national elections, continued coronavirus safety updates, important local news, emergency updates, weather and storm coverage, as well as entertainment programming.

The streamer houses 42 local TV channels in the Indianapolis designated market area (DMA), including ABC 6, NBC 13, CBS 4, FOX 59, PBS, PBS Kids, MOVIES!, Telemundo, TruCrime Network, Bounce, Antenna TV, The CW, CourtTV, GRIT, NewsNet, Daystar, and more. The streaming service also offers multi-language support by giving Spanish-language access.

This year alone, Locast has expanded into Puerto Rico, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin markets. In September, Locast became accessible for TiVo Stream 4K users in the markets it covers.

Since last July, Locast has been battling ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, which claim the service is in violation of copyright laws. In their lawsuit, the networks argue that when Locast retransmits their signals, it strips out vital information, including Nielsen codes that are used to measure ratings. In addition, the networks also claim that if Locast is truly a nonprofit, and not helping AT&T and Dish, then there is no reason to require registration or gather its own consumer data — both of which Locast currently does.

In a countersuit filed in September, Locast accused ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS of collusion. Locast claimed the networks interfered in a potential partnership with YouTube TV by disallowing it to provide access or Google would be “punished by the big four broadcasters.” The broadcasters — which own cable channels such as ESPN, Bravo, Fox News and Showtime — could band together and pressure Google as well as other pay-TV operators by refusing to sell their cable channels, Locast suggested.