The dream of free live-streamed broadcast TV is alive in Portland.
Non-profit streaming service Locast has announced deployment into its 31st designated marketing area, the Portland, Ore. area.
The service will deliver 39 local broadcast channels across 27 counties in Oregon and Washington, covering cities ranging from Salem and Tallamook in Oregon to Vancouver and Longview in Washington.
Local channels in the Portland DMA include KGW NBC 8, KPTV FOX 12, KATU ABC 2, KOIN CBS 6, PBS and PBS Kids, as well as DABL, Telemundo, Univision, Azteca America, Antenna, CourtTV, Mystery, MeTV, TrueCrime, The CW, Bounce, Quest, QVC, HSN, LAFF, Comet, ION, Grit and Charge!.
Founded in 2018 by consumer rights attorney David Goodfriend, Locast now has more than 2.5 million registered users nationwide in 31 markets.
Existentially, Goodfriend says the Copyright Act of 1976 gives Locast the right to live-stream local channels on a nonprofit basis.
To fund its operations, Locast asks—in the form of annoying commercials that pop up on its service every 15 minutes—for donations starting at $5.50 a month. Agreeing to those terms makes the commercials go away.
Locast said that only a small percentage of its users are donating at this point.
