ORLANDO, Fla.—Media technology company FreeCast has unveiled FreeCast Cities, a new direct-to-consumer streaming platform designed to deliver local streaming experiences tailored to each of the 210 U.S. Designated Market Areas (DMAs).

FreeCast Cities, already in beta testing, combines local television, free streaming channels, premium television services, on-demand entertainment and subscription management into a single consumer experience accessible across supported televisions, mobile devices, computers and connected streaming platforms.

FreeCast Cities is marketing itself as: "One City. One Login. All Your Television."

Each FreeCast Cities market is intended to provide a locally branded streaming destination. This destination will feature participating local broadcast television stations, using FreeCast's Broadcast-Enabled Streaming Technology (BEST), alongside hundreds of free FAST channels, free ad-supported movies and television programming, optional premium entertainment services and integrated subscription management capabilities.

The platform also incorporates SmartGuide, FreeCast's universal discovery engine, enabling users to search across supported live television, streaming services, connected subscriptions and on-demand programming through a single interface. Through MediaPay, eligible subscription services may be purchased, managed and billed within one account, creating a simplified consumer experience.

FreeCast said it expects the platform to include DirecTV residential offers, providing eligible consumers with the ability to add premium live television programming, sports, movies and other content through internet delivery without requiring a traditional home satellite dish or additional dedicated receiving hardware.

The company will introduce the platform in phases. It said it expects to introduce individual city launches on a market-by-market basis, generally in groups of about one to three markets at a time, as commercial agreements, broadcaster participation, content availability, operational readiness and related deployment milestones are completed.

Each market launch is expected to be announced individually, allowing consumers, broadcasters, advertisers and commercial partners to understand the unique local programming and services available within each participating community more fully.

"Television has become increasingly fragmented across dozens of applications, subscriptions and devices," said William (Bill) Mobley, CEO of FreeCast. "FreeCast Cities was developed to simplify that experience by bringing local television together with streaming services, premium entertainment and subscription management into one unified platform. We believe introducing markets individually will allow us to work closely with local broadcasters and partners while delivering a more localized experience for consumers."

FreeCast Cities is built upon the same enterprise Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure the Company offers telecommunications providers, broadband operators, municipalities, multifamily communities, hospitality providers, broadcasters and other commercial organizations. The consumer platform represents an additional application of that technology while maintaining compatibility with FreeCast's broader commercial ecosystem, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

‍After showing off technology to merge OTT streaming services with over-the-air broadcasts and NextGen TV at the NAB Show in April, FreeCast has announced it will begin selling SiliconDust’s popular HD HomeRun box under its FreeCast Home label. 

FreeCast is also making the FreeCast app available to current owners of the HD HomeRun device, allowing them to access the same hybrid OTT/OTA TV experience at no additional cost.

FreeCast integrates ATSC 3.0 broadcast channels into the same FreeCast guide that already features over 700 free streaming channels and more than 500,000 on-demand movies and TV episodes. 

With the FreeCast app installed on an HD HomeRun device attached to a wifi router, all of this content is made available on all devices on the network. FreeCast’s software supports all necessary digital rights management (DRM) for encrypted digital content and OTA broadcasts, allowing for a reliable, secure, and fully legal television experience that unites streaming and local over-the-air TV.

HD HomeRun models that are supported by the FreeCast apps include the Duo (gen 2 and up), Flex, Flex 4K, and Scribe 4K. Those who already have these devices, or who purchase them from other sources, will still be able to download and install FreeCast. Additionally, HD HomeRun customers can add FreeCast to their Smart TVs, mobile phones, tablets, streaming sticks, and laptops, to take advantage of powerful features and the aggregated streaming guide for which the service is best known.

‍“What we’re doing is pairing the latest in TV software, our SmartGuide, with the latest in TV hardware, HD HomeRun boxes with next-gen ATSC 3.0 tuners and DVR functionality,” explained William Mobley, FreeCast’s CEO. “These are great devices to power our FreeCast service, and we’re excited to be able to offer that to current device owners too.”

‍HD HomeRun users can register for FreeCast and then download the app here. 

LAS VEGAS—FreeCast has announced its new FreeCast Home system, a whole-home streaming solution that brings over-the-air NextGen TV signals into the FreeCast digital guide, alongside web-delivered streaming channels and over half a million free and pay-per-view shows and movies on-demand. The network-connected device will also include an ATSC 3.0 tuner to bring the latest advances in broadcast technology to devices throughout the home and local DVR storage that is expandable via USB.

By pairing free broadcast TV with web-delivered linear and on-demand video, this hybrid system is designed to be more all-inclusive than cable television packages, while costing only a fraction of the price, the company said. 

FreeCast Home will retail to consumers for a one-time charge of $200, and will offer a lifetime of service for a one-time flat price because of recurring revenues generated by ads and commission revenue. A low-to-no cost server version of the system will be commercially available to multi-dwelling properties and the hospitality industry. 

The company already has agreements with developers of planned communities, condominiums, apartments, property management companies, college campuses, hotels, healthcare providers, vacation rental units, affordable housing providers, and more. Together this represents access to 14% of the doors in the United States, while the low price and revenue sharing potential make FreeCast home a more affordable and attractive option for operators of these communities and businesses FreeCast said.

FreeCast CEO William Mobley discussed his company's vision for the future of television. "Cable TV is becoming a legacy service, and with the fragmented streaming market right now, it's too expensive and inconvenient for consumers to embrace. With FreeCast Home, we think we've built what comes next: bringing together a wealth of free content from the internet and the airwaves, and letting everyone control their costs by choosing subscriptions and pay-per-view options as they desire. With our MDU agreements, we're very quickly going to get this experience into the hands of a huge number of consumers."

WALTHAM, Mass.—Zixi has announced that it will be supplying FreeCast, a content discovery and management engine for streaming content, with its Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP) for B2B distribution of live linear channels over IP networks.

Specifically, FreeCast will use SDVP for SelectTV, a service designed for bandwidth distributors and device manufacturers. SDVP helps with live video delivery for SelectTV clients, able to adjust to varying network conditions and using Forward Error Correction techniques for video transport over IP with minimal latency. SDVP also provides DTLS and AES encryption, allows for protected multicast transport and bandwidth efficiency.

FreeCast also uses Zixi’s ZEN Master control panel to manage and monitor streaming deployments, and configure and orchestrate live broadcast channels across protocols and the Zixi Enabled Network. It also allows for control of the edge, network and cloud with full telemetry visualization of network streams.

“Zixi is very proud to help FreeCast leverage IP infrastructure to cost-effectively distribute its live linear channels in broadcast-quality to MDUs (multi-dwelling units) across the U.S.,” said Paul Parente, senior director of Sales at Zixi. “SelectTV’s next gen solution for a la carte TV allows its customers to provide a quality viewing experience of thousands of live channels easily accessible via end-users’ personal devices, for a convenient entertainment offering that’s easy to implement wherever Wi-Fi is available.”

For more information, visit www.zixi.com.  

ORLANDO, FLA.—FreeCast has finished development on its new broadcasting platform for the distribution of content beyond the web and on to low-powered OTA broadcast television stations. The platform can take videos from the studio, field locations or web and output them directly to TV station headends or web video feeds across FreeCast branded platforms and social media channels.

According to FreeCast CEO William Mobley, the FreeCast platform allow traditional programming and channels, as well as new niche channels, to be delivered over OTA broadcasts and digitally via IP.

FreeCast says that this technology is capable of being used with the next-gen TV standard, ATSC 3.0.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.