FreeCast wants to make local streaming easier to watch — and easier to advertise against.
The company has announced the rollout of FreeCast Cities, a local streaming service that will be available across all 210 U.S. TV markets. Each market will have a localized streaming destination that brings together free streaming channels, local programming, premium TV and subscription streaming services.
Alongside it, FreeCast is pitching its Zer0Gap CTV ad platform as a way for local and regional advertisers to reach streaming viewers across those 210 markets. Instead of buying ads separately via multiple streaming apps and services, advertisers can use Zer0Gap to manage localized CTV campaigns, including targeting and measurement, through a single platform.
Why This Matters:
Local advertising is a massive market, and more of those dollars are moving to streaming. Marketers are now reallocating an average of 36% of their linear TV budgets to CTV as viewing continues to shift away from traditional television.
But local CTV can be complicated to buy. Unlike traditional local TV, where advertisers could reach large audiences through a relatively small number of broadcast and cable channels, streaming viewers are spread across a growing number of services and devices.
FreeCast is betting there’s an opportunity to simplify that market by bringing more local streaming inventory and audiences together — and giving advertisers one platform to reach them.
Experts React:
Here’s William Mobley, FreeCast’s CEO, on the news:
“Local businesses are not reducing their need to reach local consumers, the way consumers watch television is what’s changing. For decades, local advertisers could efficiently reach audiences through a handful of broadcast and cable channels. Today, those same viewers are dispersed across dozens of streaming services and devices. We believe the future belongs to platforms that aggregate audiences rather than fragment them.”
It’s a good point and local TV feels underserved from an adtech POV.
Our Take:
There’s a pretty straightforward opportunity here, right? Local advertisers haven’t stopped wanting to reach people watching TV. The way those people watch has just become much more fragmented. So, FreeCast wants to recreate some of the simplicity of buying local TV but for the streaming era.
The real test might be whether it can bring together enough inventory and viewers across those 210 DMAs to make Zer0Gap a real alternative for local advertisers.
