they might not want this specifically, but there's a whole lot of people out there who want free TV, whatever the easiest way to get it is.
they might not want this specifically, but there's a whole lot of people out there who want free TV, whatever the easiest way to get it is.
It's not like the choices are ATSC 3 or we cannot figure anything out.
It should be illegal to encrypt OTA news and local interest programming.
Why? These are heavily subsidized by taxpayer money and the broadcasters are already making money off advertising on these events.
> It should be illegal to encrypt OTA news and local interest programming.
It was on hybrid cable systems, (analog and digital channels). Since they went all-digital they lobbied and got the FCC to make it legal to encrypt broadcast stations: https://www.fcc.gov/document/commission-relaxes-cable-encryp...
Theoretically there are other options, but in practice, the choice is exactly that - ATSC 3 or GTFO - because the people with money and power to push standards through want to subject consumers to datamining and personalized ads, and they know perfectly well there's nothing consumers can realistically do about it. Like increasingly many markets, it's a supplier-driven "take it or leave it" situation.
And don't anchor your hope to current/legacy protocols - if people keep sticking to them to avoid the data mining and personalized ads, those protocols will get deprecated because they "don't support newest industry standard encryption models", or some other plausibly-deniabe bullshit.
Personally, I don't actually mind. OTA TV had already become a shitshow of advertisements anyway. Once they started overlaying them on top of shows and even embedding them within shows, it all became too much to put up with.
But I also don't use streaming services. If I want to see a TV show or movie, I get it on physical disc. But I mostly don't want to see them -- because I've filled my time with stuff that is much more useful and fulfilling.
Analog degraded gracefully with distance, but digital works until it doesn't.
2) a lot of channels were reorganized with a lot of the VHF frequencies moved up into UHF. VHF tended to get a bit better penetration and range than UHF.
I've noticed a decent bit of variance in quality of digital tuners. And as long as I could kinda point in the direction of the towers in the area I could get good signal.
Well, obviously.. there's a lot more than 3 choices for most people now.
> A lot of Americans probably don't even know they can get digital broadcasts with a coax antenna.
The people who watch sports know this, and it is reflected in the Nielsen ratings... this is still a huge market.
For me the larger screen provides a social aspect, it's something to do with family or with guests, vs. consuming alone on a phone.
Meanwhile they spend $10 on a frappuccino with hazelnut syrup.