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Millennials Unearth an Amazing Hack to Get Free TV: the Antenna (wsj.com)
From a report on WSJ: Dan Sisco has discovered a technology that allows him to access half a dozen major TV channels, completely free. "I was just kind of surprised that this is technology that exists (alternative source)," says Mr. Sisco, 28 years old. "It's been awesome. It doesn't log out and it doesn't skip." Let's hear a round of applause for TV antennas, often called "rabbit ears," a technology invented roughly seven decades ago, long before there was even a cord to be cut, which had been consigned to the technology trash can along with cassette tapes and VCRs. The antenna is mounting a quiet comeback, propelled by a generation that never knew life before cable television, and who primarily watch Netflix , Hulu and HBO via the internet. Antenna sales in the U.S. are projected to rise 7 percent in 2017 to nearly 8 million units, according to the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group. Mr. Sisco, an M.B.A. student in Provo, Utah, made his discovery after inviting friends over to watch the Super Bowl in 2014. The online stream he found to watch the game didn't have regular commercials -- disappointing half of his guests who were only interested in the ads. "An antenna was not even on my radar," he says. He went online and discovered he could buy one for $20 and watch major networks like ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS free.
I count 36 OTA channels in my current lineup. That's about as many as I got on my first cable service in the 1980s. Admittedly, most of the channels are crap, but so are most of the channels on cable.
My favorite way to set it up is to get one of those huge outdoor antennas and just throw it on top of the fiberglass in the attic, generally pointed at the transmitters. I've always gotten flawless reception that way (much better than rabbit ears), without having an ugly lightning magnet on the outside of the house.
I get it, but this guy isn't that much younger than me. Maybe if it was a 15 year old kid or something...I know what a telegraph is even though I've never even seen a telegram let alone used the equipment!
I actually look into this, and found that the cost to buy a computer and put something like MythTV on it or whatever, to get DVR capability along with the HDHomerun (I used to use these awhile back)....was GREATER and more of a hassle than to just buy a Tivo OTA DVR/tuner unit...
The Tivo comes with 4 tuners, 1TB DVR storage and lifetime "service"...for about $399.
I set up one of these with Tivo mini units throughout the house for every TV I have...for my over the air needs. I used Amazon FireTV for streaming Playstation VUE, Netflx, etc....
But do look into the Tivo OTA unit....it was plug and play, 4 tuners and less $$ than the DIY route with HDHomeRun.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Or are people really stupid enough to not know about broadcast fucking TV?
Sadly, this is a real phenomenon, and it isn't limited to Millennials.
My folks had a couple in their mid-40s over for dinner a few years back (2014ish, I think). At some point during the conversation it came up that my parents used an antenna to watch TV, rather than subscribing to cable. The wife insisted that TV channels aren't available for free, so no matter what my parents called it, what they were really doing was stealing TV from the cable companies. It took my parents and her husband a good 20 minutes to convince her that it was not, in fact, a form of theft and that OTA TV is, in fact, freely available to anyone willing to put up an antenna.
Mind you, this woman was old enough that she wouldn't have grown up with cable TV in her home, since it wasn't widely available during her childhood. The fact that she didn't remember that or know that it was still a thing was astounding.
So yes, these sorts of people really exist, and it's not just MBAs.