We tried to get on and we got “ We are suspending operation effective immediately “
Government should subsidize it like the Obama free phones and internet. Anyway major networks loose advertising money for the 2 million Locast subscribers. How stupid of them? Advertisers should consider paying less for adds that now reach a smaller audience.
Hey, I didn't write the law! Talk to your Representative and Senator; I'm sure they'll be able to work across the aisle and get this niche issue taken care of 
Sarcasm aside, I don't completely disagree with you. I think Locast made some poor accounting choices and could have allocated more costs toward the retransmission part (David Goodfriend didn't even take a salary). They could have also created two separate organizations: one that does the maintenance and retransmission, the other that creates new markets and then sells that market to the first company for $1. Or they could have split the donations into two separate buckets where half went to the retransmission costs and half went to other operations. There are a million ways they could get out of this today! Even more, they could have done nothing and gone to trial--maybe even the appeals and the Supreme Court--to prove their original argument anyway and that this basically procedural action was wrong to begin with!
The problem wasn't that they had a "Change in Net Assets" (Non-Profits do not make "Profit". They also have a "Statement of Activities" in place of an "Income Statement"); it was that they did so with activities that are expressly forbidden from showing a gap between Revenue and Expenses, especially one as massive as they had. The law may be poorly written and completely not thought out, but unless Congress changes it or the Courts throw it out, we are stuck with its plain language.
1 Like
Questions for Locast subscribers:
- Has Locast sent you anything about cancelling your monthly donation?
- Will it automatically stop or do you have to manually stop it?
- Have you stopped it yourself yet?
- Are they returning anyone's donations for the remainder of the month?
And ponderings for Locast's lawyers:
- Is Locast/SFN still collecting donations?
- The Donation button is still featured on the Locast website. Can they still collect money (legally)?
- What can they do with that money?
- What are they doing with the money they have now that they don't have operations to speak of?
LOL. You can donate money to anyone for any reason -- the reason doesn't have to be rational . You can donate money to me, today. As the one donating, you only have to figure out if it is tax deductible or not.
I wish but IMHO this it's a strategic move from Goliath, to monopolize something it's offered as Free = OTA
I wonder, how many Customer's they had lost, when they moved to Locast, all this because of heir excessive and abusive overcharge.
No, I can "gift" to you, I can "tip" you, and I can just straight up "pay" you, but I cannot "donate" to you. You need to be a registered 501(c) in order to be a tax-exempt non-profit that accepts donations as a form or revenue. You can chose not to register, but then that creates a slew of other problems that for all intents and purposes makes that not a "donation", too. I think Twitch/YouTube streamers have really confused the line with what these terms legally mean. I see a future IRS crackdown on that, but that's besides the point.
What I am talking about is the non-profit equivalent of bankruptcy and liquidation. Locast is not doing its primary mission, which means that their 501(c) status is no longer valid. If that is the case, then... see original question...
2 Likes
Ironically, I hadn't yet used Locast, but had been following it with the intention of eventually subscribing. When I saw yesterday that they were being challenged, I actually subscribed just to support them in their fight, and then this morning, I got an email saying my reoccurring donation had been cancelled because of this, but if I "wanted" to continue, I could re-institute it. I will do that as soon as I hear they're actually going to continue to fight. Of all the reasons for them to fail, I dont want it to be a cashflow problem while they're fighting this!
1 Like
Now that I have about all the channels that I used to get from Locast set up from antenna instead, I checked my recording schedule just to see what I would have missed. The answer is just about nothing. I wouldn’t miss a recording until Sunday. After that, nothing again until next Sunday. I haven’t been boycotting network television and I know we’re still in summer reruns. But gee, I really don’t watch that much that’s on those channels.
But hey, Channels did great! We lost a major carrier this morning and my family didn’t have a clue. Except from me storming around the house carrying cables and digging through closets while mumbling “bastards took down Locast”.
5 Likes
Well it’s done! Just got an email this morning from Locast saying they have canceled my subscription.
I installed antennae for $35. Used RCA antennae works really well.
1 Like
Networks have already started pulling their more valuable content and put it behind their own paywall
Yep, I think broadcast media will continue to become less and less relevant until they die, unless they innovate. But for now they litigate. Either way, I don't feel obliged to fund the effort.
2 Likes
I tried a $150 antenna and got one channel. Antenna is not an option for me apparently so without locast I just no longer get broadcast TV again. I canceled my Channels subscription too as there is no reason for me to have it now either, I have philo but I don’t really need channels for that so I’m back to streaming only I suppose.
While I did wish for higher quality from locast it was better than nothing!
I think the Locast ruling could open the door for other services. For instance, the main sticking point in the judge's ruling is that the money Locast made through donations exceeded their costs to maintain the equipment and that they used the money to expand. However, if Locast would've just stayed in their local market and not expanded they would've been abiding by the law. So, say if Locast were to sell the equipment they own in a particular market to someone local and that person broadcasted the channels to people for free just in that market that would be following the court's findings. But, I'm sure that isn't a cheap proposition.
2 Likes
Too bad that for people like myself, an antenna is useless. There's simply no signal to receive because there's a mountain between my house and the broadcast towers. When ATSC 3 lights up it might be possible to setup a retransmission tower, which I hope they do, but with ATSC 1.0 using VSB, such things were just not possible.
The vast majority of my Channels recording were from Locast.
Agree. Locast was a necessary service. I am able to live without it through the luck of geography but others just have to do without. I would recommend writing your congressman but nothing useful gets done in that town -- unless you can hire lobbyists like the networks.
1 Like
Now that I've bought the HDHR Flex I'll mainly miss Locast when out in the travel trailer. You can get mobile data a lot more places than you can bet a decent TV signal, not to mention having to aim properly.
I've not setup or used the Channels Remote DVR function before, so hopefully that will be a good substitute.
I wonder if it might be legal for Channels users to share our antenna feed with users in the same market? There would need to be some work within the software to make it happen, but I wonder if it would be legal or if they would sue us anyway regardless.
1 Like
if it were even legal (which i'm not sure it is, although if you're not charging for it and set up a non-profit i would imagine you'd qualify for the same exemption locast was after), the main issue there would be tuner count. you'd effectively have to have 70 tuners (using the LA market as an example, i believe locast had 70 channels available) and each tuner locked on a single channel which would then pass that signal on to whoever wanted it at any given time. the bandwidth costs would also (i would imagine) be huge, not to mention if your ISP caught you doing it you'd probably have your service cut off since running stuff like this residentially is against their TOS.