For years Nexstar owned local stations streamed their local news and lifestyle programs for free, live as they aired. Nexstar has announced they will no longer offer their local news streamed live for free. Instead, you will have to wait two hours to watch them online.
Nexstar says you will be able to see a 24/7 stream of local news and lifestyle shows, but not on demand. They will air continuously on repeat and you can join them at whatever point the show is at when you start watching.
You will be able to watch short clips on-demand from recent broadcasts. Nexstar will also offer live news coverage for severe weather on their sites for free, but the on-air news broadcasts will no longer be streamed for free online.
Cord cutters will still have the option to watch local news for free with an antenna or online with services like YouTube TV, FuboTV, Vidgo, or Hulu TV to name a few, if you are willing to pay.
This move by Nexstar seems like a clear attempt to force cord cutters to pay for local news instead of just watching it for free online.
What do you think of this change? Do you stream your local news for free online? For years I lived in an area with OTA TV coverage and I used the free online stream to watch news.