This season has been outstanding. Best season yet.

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I can understand it being economical if there is a critical mass already there and waiting. Like twenty years ago I could understand this. Now that doesn't make as much sense. You have to get a FCC license, get a building and tower, get the equipment and stuff. It's not a trivial thing and takes a fair bit of investment. Streaming over the internet is basically just renting servers from amazon. Maybe it costs more with a large viewership, I don't know. OTA costs the same for one viewer or two million viewers. But factor in the inconvenience of setting up an antenna, maybe like a tivo, and it becomes kinda a pain in the butt. I just don't know why people still use it.

OTA tv is free. You have electricity and a TV antenna? You can watch TV.

No need to buy cable, internet, satellite, 5G data or whatever costly alternatives you're offering.

You're asking why someone would use a free service when they could simply pay more money for the same thing...it's silly.

Take two seconds to think about it and it is.

Other people need/want/like things that are different than you.

Just because you don’t use/want/need something doesn’t me that it shouldn’t exist.

Take a hint and reevaluate yourself.

I have dubbed it "Hallmark 24". It's entertaining enough to want to keep watching, but it's so full of terrible tropes and with such bland action, acting, and directing that it's as if the Hallmark channel produced Jack Bauer lite.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. You are one of the few that have actually done that. I really appreciate you.

I'm not an Apple representative either, but I'm pretty sure only Apple TV will work 100%. The alternatives you mentioned might work or not, that's why I said they would "eventually solve this problem".

Only to morons

Other options cost money, even if it's just for high speed internet, and are largely more complicated than simple OTA.

And you come across as a horses ass. For no reason.

I've seen poor people have more access to entertainment devices then anyone else. Frankly too, if they were that poor, why spend the effort advertising to them?? OTA is advertiser supported too.

Probably because you come across as entitled moron?

Over the air is such an alternative.

>OTA is free...F R E E

So is a lot of other things. Frankly too, I've seen the poor have more access to the internet (or tv's in general).

>Try thinking beyond your personal situation...its called empathy.

I seriously don't understand why I am being treated this way.

OTA is free. How is that not obvious?

It’s the most convenient way to get the major broadcast channels (CBS, ABC, NBC) for free. The free streaming services don’t offer them.

There are tens of millions of people that have awful internet or don’t have smart phones - poor people, old people, people outside of major metropolitan areas.

This is really not that difficult to figure out.

I get that. The point is that there are other options that are generally easy to get. I understand having the over the air when there isn't much alternative, but there is alternative today that didn't exist before.

It's a good question. I have no idea why people are getting pushed out of shape.

I wonder how economical it is for stations to broadcast over the air. They can't gather data on viewers but maybe it's just people who get or want streaming.

you're going to have to pay if there is something you want to watch on ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox/etc, though

Geezus, this concept escapes you??? OTA is free...F R E E...so if youre so inclined, or poor, underpaid, etc, this works for many people. Try thinking beyond your personal situation...its called empathy.

So you found a bunch ad-supported streaming services, cool. Does that come over your free internet? I personally don’t get free internet, and there are some that can’t afford that luxury. Many poor or older citizens don’t even own computers or smart phones. If your only income is Social Security, that OTA television signal may be their only source of news and entertainment. Rural areas are a different ballgame with its own challenges and costs.

Watching TV on your phone isn't optimum. If you have a real TV, you might as well use it as a receiver.

The real problem here is that people are watching it and buying the merchandise. It’s basically at the same state as Facebook though in my mind the only ones looking forward to it are your parents.

I watch quite a bit over-the-air. I consider TV to be entertainment and a diversion, not some sort of assignment where I'm trying to optimize my outcome. The great majority of the classics from pre-1990 have played on the subchannels, along with a lot of 1990s programming and into this century. I cut the cable years ago, but I do stream some shows.

I will say this about streaming: my basic rule for many years has been that I try a new show when several people I know tell me I should watch it. It just doesn't seem to happen with streaming options. The viewing market's so fragmented that outside of venues like this there doesn't seem to be a general buzz about any show, such as formed around Cheers or Seinfeld.