Local Channels Increasingly on Streaming Platforms

TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.

Locast is heading toward a possible trial in November on claims it violates copyright of stations it carries (see 1907310043). Experts said the rise of such streaming options doesn't affect this litigation. App stores are increasingly populated with streaming services that include or focus on local channels, among them Entertainment Studios' (ES) Local Now, Haystack TV and LocalBTV.

Calling Local Now “a curated YouTube, with super hyper local news and premium content,” ES founder-CEO Byron Allen said the service came with his 2018 purchase of The Weather Channel. He said it was repositioned from a subscription VOD service to an ad-supported one that now carries close to 300 channels including local content. He said it had “a huge spike in traffic" Jan. 6 about the Capitol riot.

Local Now is losing money "but growing rapidly" and ES is trying to tap more deeply into the local and national ad markets, Allen said. He said streaming service distribution of local channels will become a norm alongside over-the-air broadcast and watching via those stations' websites. He said getting local channels to sign deals isn't difficult.

Sinclair uses its streaming service Stirr to offer users programming owned by the broadcaster and as a test bed for concepts that may find their eventual home on ATSC 3.0 stations, said Adam Ware, Sinclair general manager-national networks and platforms. The programming offered over the free app is a mix of local news, sports and syndicated shows. As networks moved forward with their own streaming services, “what was lost was local programming,” Ware said. Stirr City is intended to mimic the feel of a TV station, with a focus on local news. "The strongest local news brand is that of the TV station,” Ware said.

Hyper-specific channels could end up on 3.0 stations, Ware said, citing a Stirr channel dedicated to horse auctions that he compared to a shopping network for the purchase of livestock. ATSC 3.0 could offer interactivity options that could easily apply to shopping channels, Ware said. The streaming service is in its second year and has progressed further than the company expected, accelerated by lockdowns, he said.

Stirr doesn’t violate network affiliation agreements or retrans because it uses only Sinclair-owned content, Ware said. Streaming services owned by outside companies aren't permitted to stream any Stirr content, he said.

Goodman said affiliates don't have rights to put network programming on a streaming service, but they're perfectly free to do so with the content they own like local news. Affiliates have little leverage when a network negotiates a streaming deal with a virtual MVPD, which is why affiliate associations push for a proceeding on having some types of streaming services defined as MVPDs and required to seek retrans (see 2102160063), Goodman said.

Locast plaintiffs, in an opposition (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-07136) earlier this month to defendants' motion for summary judgment, said Locast's claims of being nonprofit are belied by its partnering with and receiving payment from some pay-TV operators that use it as a source of leverage in their retrans negotiations. Locast counsel David Hosp of Orrick told us there’s no dispute Locast is a nonprofit and all money goes back into the organization and its mission of making free, over-the-air programing publicly available: “There is nobody making a dime off this."