Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[Sojourner]

As someone previously posted, one would think that the broadcast networks would WANT expanded distribution of their ad-heavy content. But locast threatened the very lucrative retransmission fees that the broadcast networks now charge to cable, satellite, and streaming services.

So yeah, I think it's strange that ad revenue is obviously less important now than retransmission revenue. Yet some people, based purely on geography, don't have to pay it. It's clearly not a physical or technical problem. It's just a mucked up business model IMHO.

Yeah, I agree the business model is horrible for the consumer. Why should we pay (via pass-along retransmission fees) to watch broadcast TV shows littered with more ads than ever before? This is exactly why I hardly watch any broadcast TV, and when I do, it's time-shifted via DVR so I can skip all the ads.

 

[pb4uski]

...DVR-ing a local channel would be another matter. ...

We have a Fire TV recast that can record shows off of our antenna and can be accessd by any tv in our home connected to our wi-fi network... works great.

 

[ERD50]

I'm assuming since they ceased operations then the automatic donation will just stop on it's own.
I'll find out next month, it's to much work for $5.50 to bother about right now.
What I don't understand about this is that Locast in it's own way was helping the networks, their paid commercials were being broadcast to so many more households. In theory that should have helped them to raise their ad rates but I suppose if no way to prove it then then it wouldn't.

That's timely. I just now got this email:

locast
Your recurring donations to Locast have been canceled.

We're sorry to see you go, but we thank you for giving us a donation. This email confirms that your recurring donations have now been canceled. If you have a few minutes, we would love to hear about your Locast experience. [Take Survey]

Geez, I just signed up last month - DW wants to watch OTA shows while cooking dinner, and I figured this was cheap enough to get me through until I figure out if/how I want to get an antenna connection to the kitchen. She just watched on her iPad. She was happy, now his

-ERD50

 

[Trailwalker]

My wife hated the idea of screwing around with the antenna again, so she just told me to blow that dough on youtube tv. No $ savings like locast, but it'll get me through packers season and then I'll cancel it. It is much easier cancelling or pausing streaming services than cable. I had youtube tv at one time before they started jacking up the rates, but they are treating me as a new customer and qualified for the first two weeks free and then a discounted rate for 3 months. I turned off paramount plus and hulu for the three month period to offset some of the cost.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

The dirty little secret about Locast was you could use a VPN to get football or any other sport from all over the country by using a VPN and I think that was a big part of getting it shut down. According to my daughter, you could get games on Locast that might not even be showing on the NFL network. I'm no sports fan, i did not do that but my daughter and my ex husband both did. Football fans are even more outraged today than the regular Locast users who used it legitimately.
Smart people kept their mouth shut but there's always idiots that have to brag and they ruined it for everybody.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

That's timely. I just now got this email:



Geez, I just signed up last month - DW wants to watch OTA shows while cooking dinner, and I figured this was cheap enough to get me through until I figure out if/how I want to get an antenna connection to the kitchen. She just watched on her iPad. She was happy, now his

-ERD50

Most local networks nowadays have their own streaming apps so check your app store for whatever streaming device you use and you might get lucky.

 

[explanade]

Local stations don't appear to be as lucrative as they used to be?

With cord-cutting, their audience is slowly draining away.

But retransmission fees from cable and satellite have been their lifeline in the last couple of decades.

Ultimately, they may want to supplement their revenue streams with streaming of local programming.

Otherwise, the big media companies will offer content directly to viewers, with NBC and CBS offering Peacock and Paramount +, for example.

If not for the NFL TV contract, local stations may lose what audience they have now.

 

[bltkmt]

The dirty little secret about Locast was you could use a VPN to get football or any other sport from all over the country by using a VPN and I think that was a big part of getting it shut down. According to my daughter, you could get games on Locast that might not even be showing on the NFL network. I'm no sports fan, i did not do that but my daughter and my ex husband both did. Football fans are even more outraged today than the regular Locast users who used it legitimately.
Smart people kept their mouth shut but there's always idiots that have to brag and they ruined it for everybody.

I did that to watch Rams games from CT.

 

[REWahoo]

I'm trying to figure out a good way to test it before any access holes are drilled. I'm going to need a longer cable, and I've read that the longer the cable the more degraded the signal can become.

Might not be a problem as long as you use quality cable with good connectors.

Not only do I have long cable runs (60+ ft), I have four tvs connected to the antenna through a splitter, which also degrades the signal. I have no issues with signal strength, but if I did I would think an inexpensive pre-amp could be the answer.

 

[pb4uski]

I've had one sitting in a box for awhile. I also have a big wooded hill behind the house, and the tv broadcast towers are about 35 miles away. The attic installation might work. I'm trying to figure out a good way to test it before any access holes are drilled. I'm going to need a longer cable, and I've read that the longer the cable the more degraded the signal can become. Maybe it's just a good time to give up tv.....but just before Packer season. Rats.

Might not be a problem as long as you use quality cable with good connectors.

Not only do I have long cable runs (60+ ft), I have four tvs connected to the antenna through a splitter, which also degrades the signal. I have no issues with signal strength, but if I did I would think an inexpensive pre-amp could be the answer.

Here's another option that I've been using. I put my FireTV Recast in the attic attached to the antenna... actually, it is antenna, signal booster which cleans up the signal and then the Recast.

Then the video is "broadcast" from the Recast to each tv in the house via the house wifi... no need to drill holes at all... all done via wifi and also avoids the long cable problem. It was interesting... I previously had the antenna connected to the amplifier and then to my home's coax which ran to a amplified splitter in the basement and then to the Recast in the living room... so probably 70' of cable after the amplifier... but when I relocated the Recast up by the antenna so it was a less than 5' run I picked up 4 more stations... our local ABC affiliate and its auxiliary stations.

Every once in a blus moon the Recast disconnects from the wifi and I have to go into the attic and reconnect it to the network.... but if I just have to reset the Recast I can do that using the Fire TV remote.

Only downside is that you need a Fire stick for each tv but we already had them and the're only ~$30-40 each anyway.

 

[ERD50]

Most local networks nowadays have their own streaming apps so check your app store for whatever streaming device you use and you might get lucky.

Yes, DW had been doing that, but said some of the OTA she wants to watch are not available on-line or through their app.

She seems to do fine with computers when it comes to finding ways to watch TV on them but I guess I can double check.

-ERD50

 

[Buckeye]

I was a locast fan. But honestly, it lasted a lot longer than I expected. I think the broadcast networks needed some time to find an argument against the non-profit exception. In the end, they just convinced the court that locast was not really a non-profit because the monthly "donation" was necessary to make the service watchable, due to the constant interruptions on the free version. So maybe that paves the path for a locast 2.0 with a different method of collecting donations. Locast stopped the interruptions yesterday, which I thought was their response to the court's ruling. But it now appears that locast as an entity is dead.

I thought the issue was that they were making a profit which they then used to expand their reach into new cities. It seemed from their explanation the big problem came from those excess funds, i.e. not raising and using only the funds necessary to operate their existing footprint.

 

[Cobra9777]

I thought the issue was that they were making a profit which they then used to expand their reach into new cities. It seemed from their explanation the big problem came from those excess funds, i.e. not raising and using only the funds necessary to operate their existing footprint.

Locast sent an email to subscribers last Wednesday with this:

As you probably know, the federal district court in the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in the case brought against Locast by the big media companies. The court concluded that by interrupting programming to ask users for donations, and by suspending those interruptions based on whether a user makes contributions, Locast actually was charging a fee, not merely seeking a voluntary contribution. The court then concluded that revenues Locast collects in this manner exceed the cost of operating the service because funds are used to add new markets, rendering Locast ineligible to use the copyright exemption for non-profits (17 U.S.C. 111(a)(5)).

I picked up on the first part (bolded by me), which seems like a solid argument against bona fide non-profit status. But yes, the last sentence is an important part of the ruling as well. Though I'm not sure why a non-profit would be prohibited from expansion.

 

[pb4uski]

Non-profits are not prohibited from expansion.

I wonder if they could offer the service with periodic interruptions for ads (and get revenue from the ads to recover thier costs) and offer an ad-free version for $x per month.... then also request donations to provide capital for expansion of services.

It just seems odd to me that as a society we are willing to require locals to broadcast for free and allow ads and that excludes people within their broadcast area that are blocked out by mountains, buildings whatever... but we're not willing to require broadcasters to provide streaming of their OTA content to anyone within x miles of their broadcast towers.

While I can get OTA, if I couldn't I wouldn't even mind paying for it.... a similar fee to what they get from the cable companies paid directly to the local tv stations.

 

[RonBoyd]

This might be useful... if you know somebody.

How cord-cutters can create their own personal Locast

Still, there’s one alternative you might have overlooked: If you know anyone who’s blessed with better over-the-air reception, you can enlist their help in streaming local channels remotely from their antenna. Think of it as your own private version of Locast, one that’ll be pretty much impossible for the networks to strangle.

 

[pb4uski]

I wonder if this might work well for people to watch NFL games in other than their local broadcast area if they have a friend who lives in the local broadcast area of the NFL team that they follow.

 

[Trailwalker]

My wife hated the idea of screwing around with the antenna again, so she just told me to blow that dough on youtube tv. No $ savings like locast, but it'll get me through packers season and then I'll cancel it. It is much easier cancelling or pausing streaming services than cable. I had youtube tv at one time before they started jacking up the rates, but they are treating me as a new customer and qualified for the first two weeks free and then a discounted rate for 3 months. I turned off paramount plus and hulu for the three month period to offset some of the cost.

Change of plans. After seeing the Packers blown out on Sunday, I cancelled youtube tv at the end of the trial and reinstated paramount pluis and hulu.

Then...today, I went up into the attic and laid a compact outdoor antenna on the insulation, hooked it up to antenna cable and ran it to a small cheap tv in the garage, where access door is. It found every local channel (33 of them). ABC was a bit pixelated, so I attached an ampifier. Still a little pixelated. Taking the plunge, I mounted the antenna as high as I could in the attic and had it facing the Madison towers about 30 miles away. All of the channels came in and no pixelation.

Ran the cable through the house and attached to our living room television. All channels at full strength. Now I have to figure out a more permanent solution and fish the cable down the living room wall from the attic. Definitely not my skill set so I'm pretty proud that I have free tv tonight even with the temporary hillbilly installation.

 

[RunningBum]

Ran the cable through the house and attached to our living room television. All channels at full strength. Now I have to figure out a more permanent solution and fish the cable down the living room wall from the attic. Definitely not my skill set so I'm pretty proud that I have free tv tonight even with the temporary hillbilly installation.

Quick, go reread post #510 before bp4 sees this! It really is a great solution to avoid running cables all over.

 

[RetireeRobert]

Then...today, I went up into the attic and laid a compact outdoor antenna on the insulation, hooked it up to antenna cable and ran it to a small cheap tv in the garage, where access door is. It found every local channel (33 of them).

Nothing like free, over the air TV!

At our new home, now 11 years old, we have had nothing but a digital antenna mounted on the roof. Get 48 different channels. I am on a hill about midway between Portland and Eugene, so get all the Portland stations---and their subchannels---and most of the Eugene stations and their subchannels. Also pick up Corvallis PBS and Salem local channels. All this off of one digital antenna rated as 60 mile range. It gets the Portland stations from the front side. But the back side also picks up from 180 degree opposite direction the Eugene stations and Corvallis.

Good enough for me.

 

[Trailwalker]

Quick, go reread post #510 before bp4 sees this! It really is a great solution to avoid running cables all over.

That will be my back-up plan if I chicken out on snaking the cable down the wall. The attic has a lot of insulation, and it's not the easiest place to work. The actual cable run won't be that long. It's just getting it down to the place where it needs to be that may get interesting. If I fall through the ceiling, the cost of the fire tv recast will seem pretty cheap.

 

[MissMolly]

We have our antennae hooked up to our 4-channel Tablo. We have Roku Tvs/Roku sticks all through the house. The Tablo allows us to not only watch OTA TV on all our TVs, it also is a great way to schedule and record all our shows.

 

[RunningBum]

That will be my back-up plan if I chicken out on snaking the cable down the wall. The attic has a lot of insulation, and it's not the easiest place to work. The actual cable run won't be that long. It's just getting it down to the place where it needs to be that may get interesting. If I fall through the ceiling, the cost of the fire tv recast will seem pretty cheap.

Personally I'd try the Recast or similar device and only risk falling thru the ceiling if that doesn't work, but it's your call!

 

[pb4uski]

See post 510 if you don't care to run cable... in short, you attach a Fire TV recast to the antenna in the attic and then use your home wifi to "broadcast" to the TV's in your house.

 

[kcowan]

We have satellite TV and streaming via our network connections and satellite IDs but would like to have the same in Mexico while we are snowbirding for 6 months and our northern place in Vancouver is empty.

Satellite worked until we moved to a new condo in MX and have no place for the dish. Our fiber speed is 60 mbs down. In Vcr it is 6 mbs up. DW hates the lack of integrated program guide in MX. Needs me to change channels.

 

[pb4uski]

Can you put a dish in the attic and run coax to your unit?

Not sure if it is available in Canada or MX but YouTubeTV or Hulu with Live TV or fubo might give you a consistent interface no matter which home you are at.