This is amazing. For profit companies are
suing a non profit company because it is giving away free access
to local TV stations, and because these companies sell the same
free stuff to cable companies.
CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox
sue Locast, a free, nonprofit TV streaming service for
distributing free channels. Locast has been operating since January 2018
without issue. It reaches 35 million homes in 13 cities. Locast
says it is an independent nonprofit that provides a public
service, and what it does is allowed under copyright law. The
networks it streams are also available free to consumers if they
have an antenna.
Broadcast TV networks
are available for free over the air with an antenna, but selling
the rights to retransmit those signals in other ways is a big
business. Broadcasters reportedly collected $10.1 billion in
2018 and over $11 billion expected during 2019 via
retransmission fees they charge cable and satellite TV
companies.
Because companies like
NBC, etc., typically charge cable and satellite operators a fee
for redistributing their programming, they fear that Locast will
erode this revenue stream, because it does not pay them.
Bottom line,
for-profit companies are suing a nonprofit company for giving
away free the same free channels that they are mandated to
give us for free, but they also charge cable companies for.
Next they will be coming after us for using an antenna to view
those same stations. Yikes!