Carmine5 said:
Nothing was said about buying an inexpensive antenna and getting HDTV for free.
Or if it
is mentioned, it's put in the light of an ancient curio that has survived "progress" into the 21st Century. One article I read a few years back basically said, "Hey, if you still have one of those ancient rooftop antennas, you can still use it to watch modern high definition free TV just by hooking it up," like doing so was some sort of secret hacking of 'the system' or something. It was embarrassing because I'm sure the author was younger than me and didn't know of a world without cable TV and high pay-TV fees
!
And I disagree with Darth_vader. The SD subchannels may technically outnumber the HD channels available OTA in a given market, but the content that the majority desires is on the HD channels. I find it strange that so many people pay hundreds a month for cable and yet they STILL to this day overwhelmingly watch ABC, CBS and NBC, plus Fox, CW and PBS. They basically keep cable for ESPN and maybe one or two premium channels like HBO or Showtime. Hello, Netflix is $8/month and networks are FREE
! If I didn't love standard cable channels in clear HD like Discovery, History and the like, I'd have cut the cord a long time ago. I've got a Roku now and the amount of free (but mostly SD, mostly stupid) content grows daily.
Of course what really burns my bumper is the people who pay $7.99 a week for Hulu Plus to watch free OTA content WITH COMMERCIALS THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED. Holy crap, no. A home media PC or a basic DVR + antenna = OTA heaven, why would you pay to have even less control that you do with a DVR??? It's like paying $15/month or whatever it is now for SiriusXM and only listening to commercial-laden talk and CC music channels.