NYTimes: Rabbit Ears Perk Up for Free HDTV

[stationless listener]

It seems that more MSM outlets are reporting on people ditching cable and going back to over-the-air TV. The Globe & Mail also had a recent article on this still-budding phenomenon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06rabbitears.html

 

[therealjm12]

I'm hoping in the not too distant future cable channels will offer their programing to local stations; such as ESPN to ABC affiliates, MTV, TV Land, etc to CBS affiliates...........

 

[carolinaradio]

Makes sense to me. With extra stuff like TheCoolTV, Antenna TV, Me-TV, This TV, RTV, weather channels, etc now there is more variety than previously. Pretty much everything I watch I will be able to see OTA next month.

 

[Mainedude2007]

In larger markets I could see this, but in the smaller markets, it's still in development. I'm not in the largest TV market (somewhere around 130 or 150) but in the market you don't get any of the new subchannels. The NBC affiliate has Wx Plus still on DT2, the CBS has the CW on DT2, the ABC has their low power Fox station on DT2 and public television only offers PBS World on DT3, other than that there's nothing over the air other than a low power ion/religious outfit and a TBN affiliate.

 

[arnoldevns]

I'm hoping in the not too distant future cable channels will offer their programing to local stations; such as ESPN to ABC affiliates, MTV, TV Land, etc to CBS affiliates...........

Never happen. Those cable networks have a business model based on getting hundreds of millions of dollars in subscriber fees.

 

[KML0224]

Sure sounds like Bangor to me, MaineDude!

Here in Hartford/New Haven:

WFSB-DT 3-2 is their "CBS 3" service geared for Springfield, MA, with local news and advertising and many of the same syndicated shows as WFSB-DT 3-1 for Hartford. WFSB-DT 3-3 is Eyewitness News NOW, while WFSB 3-4 is a SD mess, advertised as "WFSB - Fairfield County", with the idea being that Fairfield County, Connecticut is a portion of the New York City TV market.

WCCT-DT 20-2 is ThisTV, Back in their days as WTXX-DT, 20-2 was The Tube until that folded.

WEDH-DT 24-2 is PBS' Create channel.

WVIT 30-2 is Weather Plus, while 30-3 is Universal Sports. It makes sense to carry it, since WVIT is an NBC O & O.

I haven't had my antenna hooked up in a while, but I'm told that WCTX 59-2 from New Haven is carrying Cool TV.

 

[gregg75]

I'm hoping in the not too distant future cable channels will offer their programing to local stations; such as ESPN to ABC affiliates, MTV, TV Land, etc to CBS affiliates...........

Never happen. Those cable networks have a business model based on getting hundreds of millions of dollars in subscriber fees.

I'm not so sure. If I had about 4 Antenna TV type sub channels, I would be tempted to save $60 a month.

 

[azumanga]

I'm hoping in the not too distant future cable channels will offer their programing to local stations; such as ESPN to ABC affiliates, MTV, TV Land, etc to CBS affiliates...........

Never happen. Those cable networks have a business model based on getting hundreds of millions of dollars in subscriber fees.

Maybe they could revive the USDTV model of pay aerial television, if the space is available and the price is right.

 

[TexasTom]

I'm hoping in the not too distant future cable channels will offer their programing to local stations; such as ESPN to ABC affiliates, MTV, TV Land, etc to CBS affiliates...........

It won't happen.

Using the examples that you list: ESPN collects $4/month per subscriber, so why would they give it away for free over the air and lose a revenue stream of $4sub/mo x 12mo/year x 90,000,000subs = $4,320,000,000/year. Round that to $4 billion...it's a heckuvalot of money.

As for MTV and TV Land -- they're no longer even under common ownership with CBS, since Viacom spun CBS off several years ago.

While I'd like to see more use made of digital TV subchannels, that isn't going to happen as a result of cable channels being made available OTA.

 

[flytrap]

There has been several articles recentlly about people dumping cable. They are tired of the dirty tricks and lousy service and expense of cable. such as hiding the local HD channels on odd numbers and not informing the public that they can get local HD without a box. Channels cutting out, reduced resolution and quality in order to save bandwith. refusing to carry the subchannels and the low power stations etc. People are tired of paying $80 a month to see the same tired old shows over and over. some shows are being butchered to squeeze in more commercials. Reality shows on TV Land, Movies on the Weather Channel, not enough country music on CMT.
Why pay for 200 channels of crap when you can get 15, 20 or more channels of crap for free.

You also may see a decline in cable in the next few months because many of these televisions and blue ray players that have been selling for Christmas have built in internet service. Walmart recently bought Vudu which is a video on demand movie rental service built into many of their sets. You've also got netflix on demand, youtube movies and full tv episodes, plus hundreds of cable and network shows that can be streamed to these new sets or with an add on box. Apple TV, Google, Boxee, Roku and several others are coming out with streaming boxes. Most of the quality is not as good as over the air TV and is only as good as your internet connection, but most of it is watchable. Not much sports, but I believe you can get baseball with a monthly fee. I just downloaded Boxee, which can convert you're old computer into a stream box. Its amazing the amount of free stuff you can get on this thing. You can use your HDTV as a monitor. It puts most of the shows and movies on the internet on one screen so you can scroll through it and find what you want instead of hunting all over various websites. Boxee works really good but you need a more recent computer. I used my old windows XP machine but the video card is old and the picture is slightly jerky with dropped frames. It should work fine on a newer computer.

 

[gregg75]

You can also see a ton of shows online for FREE......usually with less commercials.

The local stations only have a certain amount of space after the network (maybe 1-2
subs at most). I think we will start seeing a lot of totally sub stations (mostly low power)
with 8 or more subs on one channel. They'll eventually give cable and satellite some
competition (and a big black eye, for not carrying them in the first place) around
2015 - 2020.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I guess these people don't watch a lot of sports

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...g-the-cord-almost-nobody-else-is-either/74441

 

[radiorexredux]

I cut the cord, and I'm not going back until someone offers a-la-carte. Most everything I want to watch is available online, or I can wait a while and get it on my Roku box via Netflix. I'm curious to see what Hulu Plus will evolve into (also on Roku). BUT I DO MISS ESPN. I don't 60-bucks-per-month miss it, though. And it's nice to watch public television and read books again.

I do miss having a DVR, and I can't justify paying TiVo $20 a month. Who has the best plan for turning a PC into an OTA DVR? I found one that is Linux-based, but that might be a can of worms I don't have the time or patience to open. Maybe I should post this question in another forum?

 

[carolinaradio]

Remember, there is ESPN3.com also. I'm not a huge sports fan, but my internet provider just recently started offering it to its subscibers. I know some people that don't have cable that enjoy it.

 

[FreddyE1977]

if you are in a market where your initial reason to get cable was to overcome
the poor quality ghosted, snowy signals, then yes, this makes some sense.

 

[landtuna]

I do miss having a DVR, and I can't justify paying TiVo $20 a month. Who has the best plan for turning a PC into an OTA DVR?

Save yourself a bunch of frustration and just buy a Channel Master CM-7000PAL OTA DVR. I bought one for my very non-technical wifey and she mastered it in about half an hour. It has two OTA ATSC tuners so you can watch one show while recording another or record two shows simultaneously. It runs about $350.

I've been very pleased with its features and haven't had a moment's trouble so far.

It will NOT work on cable or satellite, just OTA.

 

[KTN Corp]

It will NOT work on cable or satellite, just OTA.

That's one thing I hate about the digital transition.  The analog always worked whether it was OTA or CATV, just flip the switch or change the menu option.  But the cable companies have gamed the system by having their box--and only their box--work on the neighborhood system thanks to the miracle (or curse depending on your view) of proprietary encryption standards.  The only TV appliances that are available in the retail shelf are ATSC-only or include the QAM system option that nobody uses.

Personally I was researching alternatives to broadcast TV a few months before the blackout and saw FM radio (particularly the non-comm stations) as viable alternative more convenient than TV.  I can listen anywhere whether it's the table-top unit, the car radio, or the Sony Walkman radio.  It may seem like I am abusing the analog non-comm FM technology, but the advantage of the car/portable radio is that if I remember to tune in during my free time, I never have to rush home to catch a program or miss it entirely.

I can't buy an HDTV because there is no room for one. Each bedroom and the living room has an analog set. (It seems that I was prosperous in the '90s.)

 

[flytrap]

You should be able to use a stand alone DVR with cable. If the recorder has AV jacks on the back of the recorder you can connect a cable from your cable boxes AV out to your recorders AV in, just like a vcr. Program the DVR to record from the AV in instead of the built in tuner. you could also connect the coax from you cable to the antenna coax plug on the DVR and record from channel 3 or 4, but the picture is lousy when you record that way. then connect the output of the DVR to your TV.

I have a magnavox VCR DVD combo that records DVD or Tapes directly off the air with my antenna. It works fine just like a vcr. 2 hours of good quality or up to 6 hours of poor quality on one DVD. you can use DVD RW if you want to erase it later.

I too am sick of cable. I still can't figure out why people are paying up to $100 for this crap, when most of the popular stuff people watch is over the air for free ( and in pure untinkered with HD). or on the internet.

if you are looking into turning you computer into a DVR you can buy a simple TV tuner that will plug into your USB port. You can program it just like a VCR. Some download tv listings so you can use it similar to a TIVO. Its also free. No subscription. However some of the stations are sometimes missing from the TV guide. So you have to program it manually on these channels. My old computer has an old analog TV tuner that I still use. I just connected a converter box to it. I can't program it using the TV guide anymore since the analog shutdown. but it works fine if you just set the timer to come on and record whatever channel the converter box is tuned to.

 

[ansky212]

I too am sick of cable. I still can't figure out why people are paying up to $100 for this crap, when most of the popular stuff people watch is over the air for free ( and in pure untinkered with HD). or on the internet.

Sports. Any avid sports fan is not going to find many options OTA besides weekly football games and playoffs in other sports. And sports on the internet is usually very lacking except for some no-name college games. As a Yankee fan there are only about 20 games per year on WWOR, the rest I need cable to watch. Anyway, with bundled discounts I'm only paying about $30/month for that "crap"

 

[radiolives]

You can watch ESPN online for free. Im sure everyone knows the websites.