Local Channel Connector also provides station signals

AT&T said it is adding Locast’s app on its DirecTV and U-verse platforms, effective Friday.

Locast is a non-profit, free over-the-air service that streams local station’s TV signals without payment or permission. It operates under a provision in the Copyright Act that permits secondary transmissions by a non-profit that doesn’t charge its consumers.

Earlier this month, Locast added to the devices and platforms on which it can be viewed. The service is available in markets including New York, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

“AT&T continues to offer consumers new ways to access the video content they want. We believe Locast’s public service offering will make sense for many of them,” AT&T said in a statement.

Subscribers to AT&T will also continue to be able to use the company’s free Local Channel Connector service when a local station is otherwise unavailable.

The Local Channel Connector captures stations’ over-the-air digital signals via a free digital broadcast antenna and enables customers to select channels using the program guide.

AT&T recently provided over 10,000 free Local Channel Connectors to Salt Lake City customers who went without the local NBC affiliate KSL-TV because of a retransmission consent dispute. The eight-month blackout was resolved in April.