We are now a few months into 2018 and locals are quickly being added to live TV streaming services. Hulu now has over 400 live locals and fuboTV recently topped 200 live locals.
Recently Cord Cutters News has talked with people on both broadcast and streaming sides about the future of broadcast TV and streaming.
According to multiple sources the decision for broadcast affiliates to join live TV streaming services has been made. Now the holdup is a combination of contracts and, more important, technical issues that need to be overcome.
This lines up well with news from Sinclair and Nexstar, two of the largest affiliate owners that recently announced deals with several live TV streaming services late last year. “Nexstar now has reached mutually satisfactory agreements with three of the big four networks for participation in OTT services,” said CEO Perry Sook in a statement.
Sook did not stop there and went on to stay “We are of a mind that we will have agreements with all the networks by year-end and all of the participating OTT services by year-end, and we’ll see what it ultimately amounts to,” Sook said.
Now this does not mean all locals will be live by the end of 2018, but according to people close to the situation, most will. At least when talking about ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC.
Contractional obligations are some of the biggest holdups. Not only do affiliate owners need a deal with services such as DIRECTV NOW, Hulu, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and others, they also need to strike a new deal with the parent company for each network. For example, Nexstar said a handful of NBC affiliate deals are not set to be renewed until sometime in 2018. These agreements will need to be renewed before the affiliates will be added.
There are also technical and manpower hurdles that need to be overcome because it is no minor task to add a live stream of a local affiliate.
So if access to your locals live streamed was holding you back the good news is they are coming. The bad news is that you may need to wait a year before you will have access on one of the many live TV streaming services.
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