LocalBTV just added Miami to its collection of service areas. These additions bring LocalBTV’s reach to 25 total markets.
The free service provides 30-40+ local channels with news and entertainment in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and more. LocalBTV is available on your browser, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast. The service includes a 1TB cloud DVR. Its most-known channel is COZI TV.
Parent company Didja CEO Jim Long has said he plans to have LocalBTV in as many as 100 markets by the end of 2022, so the service could quadruple in the next few months if Long is successful.
LocalBTV is now available in the following markets:
- Detroit
- Columbus
- Cleveland
- Cincinnati
- Toledo
- Reno
- Phoenix
- Bay Area
- Southern California
- Philadelphia
- San Diego
- New York City
- Indianapolis
- Atlanta
- Las Vegas
- Chicago
- Fresno
- Monterey
- Louisville
- Nashville
- Houston
- Bakersfield
- Biloxi
- Palm Beach
- Miami
LocalBTV is one of several local TV streaming services like Local Now, NewsON, DistroTV, and VUIt. All of these services can provide a solid benefit for people who may have eliminated live TV entirely, choosing VOD services as their primary form of entertainment.
The most high profile of these services was Locast, a service that was forced to shut down after a barrage of lawsuits from the local affiliates it was retransmitting. Right now, there is no free way to stream your local network affiliates, although these free services often offer local news or other programming specific to an area.
For cord-cutters who don’t have access to an antenna or may prefer non-English content, LocalBTV is worth considering as part of your news and entertainment lineup. In the case of severe weather coverage, these stations can be a helpful lifeline for people without another live TV service.
LocalBTV
LocalBTV gives users the ability to watch free local broadcast TV without an antenna on their computer, phone, tablet, or TV (aka virtual-over-the-air or vOTA streaming). The platform is available in 53 US markets/DMAs, powers 704 local broadcast TV channels, plus 88 “hyper-local” Community Video channels. The service paused operations in November 2023. It is unclear if it will return.