YouTube TV or similar for fitness center

[sundermannc]

Hi all,

Our local cable company has provided free CATV service to schools for many, many years. This has been mostly utilized in our fitness center where we have 6 or 8 TVs which show ESPN.

However, without warning, they have now turned this off, and if we want service, we have to pay $15/TV/Month...  Plus there's some physical new hardware and logistics that would be needed. So it's not out of the question for our weight room to go this route, but I'm exploring other options that may be out there.

One idea was YouTube TV, but this is not available for Education domains. This certainly could be skirted by using a generic personal @gmail.com account. However, even going with something like YouTube TV on a personal gmail account is technically breaking the Terms of Service, as those are clearly stated for personal use.

Wondering if anyone else has any experience with using some kind of internet TV service via a Fire Stick, Roku, SmartTV, etc for use in their schools....  That is legal, even as a paid service.

[Kim_Nilsson]

Most services, most likely even the CATV you used before, have user policies stating that they are not to be used for what you intend. 😞

In Sweden we have the opportunity to purchase a media licence for the school district, which includes quite a few media production  companies, which allows us to show almost any movie and TV show in class or on school premises (for school purposes). So as long as the source of the media is legal (no illegal downloads), we are allowed to show it. This includes Netflix, as we have asked them specifically.

I hope you get some good responses which are valid for where you operate.

[jsb_tech]

Not sure if this breaks or just bends some K12 rules/policies, but what would stop you (or any of us) to purchase a streaming device like the ONN streaming device from Walmart and have your TV options be limited to FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channels? Not sure if you even have to log in, but just spitballing here...

I doubt you'll find an ESPN-esque station, but you might get cornhole... if you're into that. So, the thing is, this isn't really collecting student data. It's kinda just TV, right? And even Cable TV and ESPN showed ads... to kids... IN SCHOOL. My point, is not all streamers are paid services these days and maybe there's something out there that won't require a login bypassing the account propriety issue...

[sundermannc]

Thanks for the answers.  @Kim_Nilsson the CATV service that was used prevoiusly was in fact legal, as the carrier was the one who willingly provided the signal to the schools.  For free, even!  Alas, times have changed.

I think I found a solution.  I'm testing out https://www.atmosphere.tv/  While it's not true ESPN, they have a sports channel, red bull channel, and some others that work well in a fitness center.  They are sending me an Apple TV to place behind the TVs, and the service is free.  Not to shabby.  Ad supported, but it's no different than ESPN showing ads.

We'll see how it goes.

[Kim_Nilsson]

Nice, glad to see you found something that works for you.