Local TV streaming service Locast said it has launched in its 35th market, Pittsburgh.
The geofenced service will also include Morgantown, West Virginia, with is lineup of 40-plus TV station channels.
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Locast is supported by donations from users. Those who don't pony up are sent periodic requests for donations that interrupt the programming, but also offers a Locast Cares option for users who can't afford to pitch in, an option for which University students, for example, can qualify for.
Also eligible for the program--which is capped at the first 25,000 who apply--are first responders and low-income households.
Locast is available through, among others, Google Play, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon, and Roku.
Locast streams TV station signals online, using a copyright carveout to do so without having to seek permission from the station or pay a license fee, which Locast argues is essentially a "fair use" of the signals under the law, though the TV networks see it quite differently.
Among Locast's board members has been Gigi Sohn, the former advisor to FCC chair Tom Wheeler and before that head of fair use advocates Public Knowledge. Sohn's name has been mentioned in recent weeks as a possible new FCC chair or third Democratic commissioner.
