Posted on 01/15/2019 2:40:05 PM PST by Openurmind
About one in seven American households is watching old-fashioned, over-the-air television broadcasts, an increasingly appealing choice for former cable customers who have “cut the cord” but still want to catch up with their local news and network stations.
The new data from market research firm Nielsen shows that over-the-air viewing increased to 14% of all homes last year from 9% in 2010. At the same time, the percentage of households subscribing to cable or satellite TV peaked at 88% in 2010 and has since sunk to 79%, according to surveys by the Leichtman Research Group. Catching free over-the-air broadcasts simply by adding an antenna that cost $50 or less likely appeals to many cord cutters who dropped cable TV because it was too expensive.
I’m rural too. No cable and too far out for normal broadcast. And the satellite companies are outrageous. We still had an old school big dish around and set it back up again to get FTA free satellite, both KU and C bands. We are actually getting plenty to watch.
bookmarked
The OTA channels don't compress the video as much on the x.1 channel
Currently using rabbit ears but soon will install an external antenna.
“The old joke “200 channels and nothing is on” is truer than ever.”
Try 500 channels! And it’s worse if you are an insomniac. On DirecTV the “late night” fare is six or eight channels entitled “Do You Poop Enough?”, together with multiple channels selling discount-priced sex toys.
“I tried the super duper digital OTA antenna, good for 75 miles (we are 53 as the crow flies) and got zero channels.”
I’m within the range (50something to 75 miles) you mentioned and get a boatload of channels pretty well. Using nothing but some el cheapo rabbit ears antenna. If you haven’t given those a try yet, I’d suggest hooking a pair up.
But, like I said, the rule about range has always been in place. Though I’ve watched atmospheric “skip” channels from 100s of miles away. It’s an odd phenom and usually doesn’t last for a real long time.
Any recommendations for off-air antennas that have long distance coverage?
You pay once for a TV antenna and that is it.
That’s funny... lol
Man I hate Direct TV...
We LIKED it back then and would like to brainwash our kids the same way WE were ...
We've made some bad choices, but we ain't evil, nor are we enemies of America.
We may not love Jesus, but we would never disrespect anyone that does.
There's a whole LOT of conditioning that TV was responsable for and we would like to have a shot at getting back there.
in my humble opinion.
We get our TV and internet over the web.
AT&T recently sent us something about how they’re going to move us from satellite to some sort of local wireless. I’ll be impressed if it can reach us out here!!!
It’s free!
Have not had cable since 2003 or so. Have over the air in Los Angeles with just two Clear Stream antennas. My wife is happy so I am happy. “just” internet handles the rest.
Clicker box!! My childhood friend had one, and that’s what I call it to this day if the word “remote” doesn’t come to mind. The friend’s family was well off so they had the very latest in home gadgets for the mid-sixties, like a trash compactor as an example.
A neighbor asked me the other day if I still used the antennae that’s installed on my roof. He wanted to buy it. I don’t use it (but I don’t have cable either, just internet) but I had to disappoint him since I didn’t want to get up there and pull it off the roof; didn’t want to cause leaks. He wanted to watch the local Philippine language stations.
“Returned it to Best Buy. GEEKSQUAD guy said they got a LOT of returns on them.”
—
By the way, never take a PC to BestBuy-Geek Squad for fixin’. Not only do they scam the bejezuz outta people, but they’re also pretty much an arm of the deep state when it comes to getting any info outta your devices.
But who is going to subsidize ESPN,the NFL,NBA etc and their mostly uber rich taxpayer subsidized owners and overpaid players?
We had a huge antenna in the muddle of nowhere and used to get stations from about 150 miles away when it was analog. As soon as it went digital not zip.
“I tried the super duper digital OTA antenna, good for 75 miles (we are 53 as the crow flies) and got zero channels”
I have read more than one time that you want to match the over-the-air antenna as close as possible to your actual distance to the tower. A 75-mile range antenna may not be good when you’re only 50 miles out. Over amplification or something to that effect.
....been for over three years...winter months better reception less leaves
Avg 55-60 channels Nov thu early April
Summer months down to 38-43 channels
ABC NBC CBS FOX both NY and Philly
QUEST,Justice,Movie channel,Cosi,Start,Bounce, Charge,CW,
PBSnj (4 of them),NHK,F24,some Spanish
(3),Stadium.
I also use my county library system for free DVDs if I wanna catch up on different series HBO,etc ...one library specializes in British TV series...along with classics series..
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