NEW YORK, March 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Locast, the nonprofit local TV streaming service, announced today the addition of longtime public interest communications policy advocate Gigi Sohn to its board of directors. Sohn, a lawyer and innovator, is one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, universal and affordable communications networks.
Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate. From 2013-2016, Gigi was counselor to the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, and advised him on a wide range of internet, telecommunications and media issues. From 2001-2013, Gigi served as the co-founder and CEO of Public Knowledge, a leading telecommunications, media and technology policy advocacy organization. She was previously a project specialist in the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture unit and executive director of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Advisory Board of the Open Markets Institute.
“Gigi has worked for more than 30 years to defend and preserve competition and innovation policies that have made broadband internet access more ubiquitous, competitive and affordable across the country,” said David Goodfriend, founder and chairman of Locast. “Her enormous experience and knowledge of broadband policies will help guide Locast as we pursue our nonprofit mission to deliver local TV channels via the Internet to reach more consumers.”
“I’m honored to join the Locast board,” said Sohn. “I’m inspired by small nonprofits like Locast overcoming enormous challenges to give consumers greater choice in how they watch their local TV channels.”
Locast provides a nonprofit public service that streams local TV channels for free in 17 U.S. cities and reaches more than 41 million viewers nationwide with local news, weather, emergency information, sports, and entertainment programming available from broadcast TV. Viewers using internet-connected devices can watch, for free, their locally produced broadcast TV in high definition via the Locast app or at www.locast.org.
For more information or to sign up for free for Locast, visit www.locast.org. Follow Locast on Facebook and Twitter @LocastOrg.
About Locast
Locast.org was founded by Sports Fans Coalition NY (SFCNY), a New York-based nonprofit, fan-advocacy group formed in 2017. Locast launched in January 2018 in New York City. SFCNY is the first local chapter of Sports Fans Coalition, Inc., which led the successful campaign to end the Sports Blackout Rule at the FCC in 2014 and continues to advocate for fans wherever sports and public policy intersect. As a nonprofit, Locast is supported by user donations and is available at www.locast.org, app stores, on DISH Hopper/Wally receivers, select DIRECTV receivers, TiVo, AT&T’s U-Verse, and at streaming service providers Google Play, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon, and ROKU. Visit us at www.locast.org.