The Future Of FREE Digital TV over the air?

[RKP5637]

Petition to keep digital TV free over the air.

"What is the future of free TV? Well, if it's left to the FCC, congress, CTIA, CEA, pay TV providers and wireless providers, it's not going to get any better, and it can only get worse. In the middle of the biggest economic crises since the Great Depression, these forces would like nothing more than to do away with free TV.Why? Money. They want you to PAY for TV and wireless broadband, and the FCC is staffed by lawyers looking to be hired by these industries once their appointments at the FCC come to an end.

Tell Congress to protect free, local television's ability to innovate and provide the news, emergency information and entertainment you expect and deserve."

http://cachefreetv.blogspot.com/2011/11/future-of-free-tv.html

[Fumesucker]

1. I'm not sure most people even know you can get local stations over the airwaves..

I've surprised a number of people by hooking up a simple antenna to their sets and picking up dozens of stations, not a one has known it was even possible any more.

I like tvfool dot com for finding local stations..

http://tvfool.com/

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, it amazes me too. I can get 24 HDTV channels here with just a simple

antenna attached to the TV. And the picture is crystal clear, far better than cable TV which I've dumped. I just got another notice they were increasing the cost significantly and for me that burned the bridge.

[TheWraith]

3. So what? It's 24 channels of crap.

How much is there really worth watching on local network TV? I can think of maybe two or three series on broadcast TV that have any respect; the news is a joke; and there's little diversity of choice. Those channels are free for a reason.

[Fumesucker]

6. How many cable channels are worthless?

The great majority in my opinion, and yet you pay monthly for all of them.

Netflix subscription plus an antenna will get you more than enough content to kill brain cells with.

[TheWraith]

10. Plenty. But you also get the best channels.

Netflix won't give you current episodes of all the most critically acclaimed series on television. And if you think that the only purpose anyone could have with TV is "to kill braincells," that probably influences your general opinion.

[Fumesucker]

12. Why do you have to have the current episodes?

Back when I had cable I spent a lot more time scanning through the channels trying to find something beyond Ice Road Truckers or Real Housewives of Peoria Illinois or whatever..

For those who are financially precarious over the air TV is a godsend.

Obviously you don't fit into that category.

[TheWraith]

25. Actually, I'm sure I'm far more financially precarious than you are.

Currently I make less than one would collecting Social Security or on a minimum wage job. But thanks for the absurd attempt to insinuate that only elitists watch TV, while simultaneously making yourself feel elite because you don't watch TV.

And yes, I'm sure you could get along with never watching a current television show. Some of us, though, appreciate being able to share in the same ongoing culture as the rest of the public, rather than isolating ourselves into a bubble. If good TV or shared socialization isn't important to you, fine, but don't go around acting high and mighty because it's a choice you choose not to make and others do.

[Fumesucker]

26. If you have enough to pay for cable or satellite you're doing a lot better than I..

If all you have to talk about with other people is cable TV shows I feel sorry for you, life is so much more interesting than fiction. If the only things someone can converse about is what's on the TV I don't have much interest in talking with them anyway, I have a family member like that and we might as well be speaking separate mutually incomprehensible languages a lot of the time.

I help friends who don't have the money for cable get over the air TV so they can have some entertainment too, I know quite a few people in that situation. I have a lot of technical skills and use them to help people when I can, I build computers from junk and give them away, I repair and restore all manner of gadgets up to and including cars. Indeed, I'm helping someone on the Frugal Living group right now with a problem with their water heater and I'm fairly sure I've spotted their problem.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1128&pid=448

It's funny how we end up in conflict on a thread where I'm trying to help people save money, evidently in your world that's a bad thing and I'm some sort of elitist for doing it.

[TheWraith]

27. What I call elitist is acting like not watching TV makes you a better person.

And that entertainment is only useful for "killing brain cells" as you put it. Your thinking that TV isn't worth watching is not the final moral arbiter.

[Fumesucker]

28. So it's immoral to think TV is largely a waste of time?

Most of it bores me to tears. My grandkids think I'm psychic because I can very often predict the plots of TV shows I've never seen, most of them are made to a formula and eventually you learn most of the changes that can be rung on a particular plot line.

I spent a couple of years where I was so ill I couldn't do much more than watch TV, I learned then that there were ultimately only a very few programs I actually enjoyed, the rest were bubble gum for the eyes with just about as much mental nutritional value as bubble gum.

[sylveste]

15. get back to me

when netflix has live sports.

[NBachers]

14. Are you kidding me? All day I've had excellent jazz from KCSM airwave broadcast on my TV

Turn it on, tune it in, and I've got an excellent jazz background for my day's activities; provided by people who really know their shit. They show who's playing where around town while the music's on.

Plus, it's nice to tune in the local news here in my hometown.

I can pick up world news with an interesting perspective from Russia Today, BBC, and NPR (although I've got my issues with NPR).

Not to mention the Perry Mason reruns on KOFY TV-20!

It all comes in via my antenna - for free. I refuse to give money to the cable pigs.

All that is worth watching.

And let me tellya about my Roku box . . .

[hunter]

17. 24 channels of crap is better than 300 channels of crap.

When I quit cable I told them they should be PAYING ME to sort through their crap.

It's like digging in a porta-potty looking for jewelery or coins someone may have dropped.

[customerserviceguy]

30. Your analogy makes me cringe

But it is accurate.

[RKP5637]

33. Yeah, same here. With 300 channels you get splattered crap for pay, with

24 channels you get focused crap for free. I was just clicking through some channels just a few minutes ago, it makes me cringe that anyone watches some of this stuff.

[RKP5637]

21. I use Roku Internet TV for almost everything, but I like to

keep up with local, news, etc., but don't want to pay $60/mo for that.
Roku http://roku.com

[cachefreetv]

36. May I enlighten you?

May I enlighten you?
Most of the top rated 100 TV shows are available free over the air:

Top 100 A18-49 Programming 2010-11 Season
http://www.tvb.org/measurement/4747/260733
Interestingly, all 11 subscription shows that made the top 100 in 2011 are SPORTS.

All-time 100 best TV shows ever: All from broadcast TV.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2009/03/21/top-100-rated-tv-shows-of-all-time/14922/

[Heywood J]

41. Yes, you say all OTA content is crap, so we should give it all up so that

spoiled children who were given smartphones for Christmas and otherwise-bored adults can completely monopolize all the available wireless spectrum, using it to download such wonders as:

Flick boogers on your iPhone
Make farting noises
Take pictures of women and make their breasts jiggle
Use your phone's GPS to instantly track the location of your bowel movements and share them with the world
Have the phone rate your sexual performance
etc.

Yep, I'm glad that allowing more people to download random Youtube videos faster, pick boogers, download sexual performance apps, or whatever is worth disposing of public OTA TV.

[wandy]

5. And you live where?

Then and again even FM Radio is a bit dicey here.

[Fumesucker]

8. Try tvfool, it will let you know what channels are possible to pick up in your particular location.

http://tvfool.com/

Having a good antenna system is critical for fringe area reception, for the price of a few months cable you can have a top notch antenna system.

[rgbecker]

34. Thanks for this link. Looks like I'm getting all the stations possible.

Using a nice antenna 30 feet up with a channel master amp. Wondered if I was missing something...but actually, since replacing my antenna cable with a new one I got for Christmas things are pretty good.

Still, we are fighting to get Comcast to wire up the area as the TV and Internet are marginal.

[Fumesucker]

35. It's amazing what stations you can pick up with a good antenna/amp system..

I have a buddy that's getting his stations from nearly a hundred miles away after we set up his rig, and that's in the mountains.

[RKP5637]

20. About 20 miles outside of KC.

[Mojorabbit]

4. Is this with or without the converter

I tried with a portable tv and got a station in CUba but that was it. I really did like that little tv for hurricane season and would prefer not to have to pick up a new way more expensive one.

[RKP5637]

19. I'm using it with a $40 converter.

[Cleita]

7. What free?

I have to pay extra for the HD console from Direct TV.

[Fumesucker]

9. No cable...

TV is still broadcast from local stations and is possible to pick up with most modern sets and will all sets if you have converter box.

[RKP5637]

11. There is no cable, it's all over the air from the local transmitters, no satellite

is involved. You just use the digital tuner in your TV set or a converter box.

[BlueToTheBone]

13. so, if I go through my channels

with a digital satellite I can pick up local? Dish sends me "local" from another state and I would really like to have local "local" Or do I need an antennae as well?

[RKP5637]

18. If you have a digital TV all you need is a digital antenna. If you don't have

a digital TV, but an older analog set, you will need a converter box plus the antenna. It is all Local "local." It's sort of like the old days of rabbit antennas, but the digital signal is way better.

Here's a good site that Fumesucker posted to see what's in your area. http://tvfool.com/

[MicaelS]

16. Here are some points about this issue:

(1) Someone is still going to make money off Americans watching TV. The cable or satellite providers or the local broadcasters. The video you link to is shilling for National Association of Broadcasters, which is in business to make money for the big networks and their local affiliates.

(2) In other words, someone is going to make money off of Americans watching TV, it's only a question of who.

(3) Americans have an ever increasing appetite for wireless communication of all types. Not everyone has access to High Speed DSL or Cable for the Internet, some are still on dial-up, or pitifully slow DSL (under 1 meg). This means there is a need for high speed wireless broadband. And that broadband will not be free.

(4) Smart phones are getting more and more powerful and are consuming more and more data. The bandwidth for this increased data for everyone using their smart phone is going to have to come from somewhere, and one place is OTA TV bandwidth.

(5) If Americans want to do all sorts of stuff on their expensive smart phones, and surf the internet via wireless, they may have to give up some OTA channels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/22/fcc-spectrum-crisis-tv-airwaves_n_852741.html

[RKP5637]

22. The question that came to my mind is what is next when this

bandwidth is filled ... "The plan requires broadcasters to forfeit 120 megahertz of spectrum, which would create 22 percent more space for the crush of data from cellphones and wireless devices."

[MicaelS]

23. That's a good question, and I don't have a good answer..

Let's face it, many of these "independent" local stations are just showing old TV shows, or religious broadcasting.

How many different OTA stations are really needed for local news, weather and related safety issues and "serving the public interest"?

If Americans want to keep gobbling up wireless data, I can no other alternative except reducing the number of OTA channels. Do you see an alternative to that?

[RKP5637]

24. What I see is the net entropy increasing and increasing in a finite space.

Technological innovations are needed, otherwise wireless will basically consume itself ... it will be like driving on a very crowed highway. So, anyway, what I'm trying to say is this is only a temporary solution to a far larger technological problem IMO. It might buy some time, but not a real solution. And, what that 'real' solution is, I don't know ... ha, if I did, I'd be out promoting it ...

[Fumesucker]

29. Are you familiar with the concept of Stratellite?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratellite

[RKP5637]

31. That, is very interesting!!! Something that bothers me is the cramming of

new technologies into existing paradigms of what constitutes bandwidth. Another is I find cable so obsolete, stringing subterranean cables around. Somehow I look at this as the Chicago phone lines early in the 20th century. It's a path we're moving along. ... this Stratellite concept (or similar) is soooo interesting!

Thanks for passing it along.

[hunter]

39. Put free wifi/microcell on every streetlight, in every public place, all linked by fiber.

Done. You solve the problem by making each wireless cell smaller.

Optical fiber itself is cheap. Installing a nationwide system might be a 1930's style public works project, just like rural electrification, highway development, etc...

We have the technology, we the people own the bandwidth, and people could use the work.

[RKP5637]

40. Yep, that would work IMO!!!

[onenote]

32. Right, there are no former FCC staffers working for the broadcast industry...

What a laugh. Both within the National Association of Broadcasters and the outside law firms representing the broadcast industry you will find large numbers of former FCC staffers. Its true that the head of NAB isn't a former FCC staffer. He's a former United States Senator.

NAB's PAC spent almost $1.2 million in the 2009-2010 election cycle. With nearly a year left in the 2011-12 cycle, they've already doled out over $800K.

Poor poor broadcast industry. Boo hoo hoo.

[SoCalDem]

37. We've had Dish for so long, we'd never survive with only the "freebies"

Most of what we watch is not available for free

[RKP5637]

38. What I'm using here now are the air channels + Internet TV (Roku.) It's

amazing to me where Roku http://Roku.com and others are taking online TV. Of course, the thing in the back of my mind is when are the Internet TV sources going to start charging and bundling services together, so one eventually ends up back at the cost of cable.

What has amazed me is that with the power and potential of air HDTV and the incredible picture quality, that the broadcasters haven't pushed air HDTV as serious competition to cable and satellite.