I've been a loyal cable TV customer most of my life. From the time I was 6 years old, my parents subscribed to cable and I enjoyed watching the latest cartoons and live action shows on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. I enjoyed watching the latest music videos from my favorite rock bands and rap artists on MTV. Most of all, I thought cable TV was pretty cool at the time. Before I had cable, I had an old 13 channel analog TV set with rabbit ears in the living room. But once my dad bought the latest Sony TV set circa 1990 from a Costco, that's when we jumped on the cable bandwagon. And we never looked back at our grandfather's old rabbit ears antenna.
I enjoyed cable for the most part up until right before the switchover from analog to digital broadcasts from the FCC in June 2009. As I got older, I was constantly surfing to watch something good on TV, whether it be dramas, children's programming, or movies. I was getting fed up with the trashy reality shows I was getting. What I was watching on cable was getting less interesting, trashier, and obviously getting more expensive. I remembered in the 90's when I first had cable, I thought it was cool and I got great video and sound off of it. I was losing interest with the programming that was being aired on MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and VH1. The quality of the entertainment wasn't there anymore.
Plus, I wasn't even watching the 200 channels my parents were paying for. I was barely even watching cable anymore since I went off to college. On my days where I'm not studying or taking final exams, I was busy having a night out with friends or surfing the Internet. When over-the-air broadcast television went from analog to digital, the monthly fees and rates for cable and satellite services tripled.
While my parents kept the cable TV and Internet access at their East Bay home for the most part, when I moved back into my childhood house in San Francisco, I was without cable or satellite. When I moved back into the house I grew up in, I didn't think about calling Comcast and setting up a 120 digital cable channel package. I didn't want to spend my hard earned money from my job to do that, but I did sign up for Comcast Xfinity high-speed Internet service at my house. I was thinking of signing up for Dish Network when I moved back into my childhood home, but my girlfriend Faith and her mom had bad experiences with the rate increase when their 12 month introductory rate ended. They have since went back to watching free over-the-air TV through an antenna and converter box on their analog TV set.
For the next year and a half, I bought a sleek 19-inch Insignia HDTV set from Best Buy but yet I couldn't watch any programming. My TV watching habits were putting in a DVD copy in my movie and TV show collection onto my Xbox 360. I borrowed DVD's from the library and a Red Box kiosk at the Walgreens I previously worked at, or bought DVD's online or at the record store Rasputin. I didn't want to subscribe to cable or satellite, because for the most part, I couldn't afford it and I thought it was pointless to pay $80 a month for 200 channels with nothing good on and that I wouldn't be watching most of them anyways. I wasn't necessarily unemployed, but I wanted to save money and I didn't want to spend over a thousand bucks a year for a couple hundred channels of filler. For the most part, I watch on average 10 to 12 channels on my TV set when channel surfing or when I sit down to watch.
So basically I cut the cord. My HDTV set was in my bedroom, but I wanted to find the free and cheap alternative to cable and satellite. I totally missed out on the whole analog-to-digital transition, but I went on the Internet to find out how I can watch DTV without cable or satellite. I was getting tired of watching the same ol' DVD's on my Xbox 360 of movies I already own. So I went to a Target store and bought me a non-amplified Mohu Leaf HDTV antenna. I set up the indoor antenna onto my TV set and wallah! I get to watch daytime and primetime shows for free on ABC, FOX, and CW. I didn't have to pay for watching TV anymore!
One thing I really loved about the transition from analog to digital broadcasting was before this even happened, the old rabbit ears antenna that my grandfather used to watch I Love Lucy could only pull in a handful of over-the-air programming. Now broadcast over-the-air television through an antenna can fit multiple channels onto what used to could only fit one analog channel. Before the digital switch over, we could only get one analog channel. After the digital transition, our over-the-air programming choices tripled since we now get subchannels transmitted from the broadcasting towers.When I installed the Mohu Leaf indoor antenna onto my 19 inch Insignia HDTV set, since I live in a big city, I was able to receive 36 over-the-air digital channels on my Leaf! Personally, I consider over-the-air programming the new basic cable. As it turns out, major cities in America tend to pull in a surprising number of free broadcast channels. Los Angeles receives 40 or more channels, according to Nielsen.
Heck, the picture of what I'm receiving on my TV set through the antenna was definitely crisper and of higher quality, than what I was getting on cable or satellite, because the cable and satellite providers often compress the video data. During the old school days of analog broadcasts, they occasionally showed static and a snowy picture on the TV screen once we lose our signal whether it be heavy rain or other distractions. Digital broadcasts were for the most part better, but less forgiving of interference, as what you're watching would most likely blank out all together. But it was way better than paying $1,200 a year for cable and satellite TV.
These days, Americans are not only thinking of cutting the cord, heck, they're actually doing it. While 90% of households in America still pay for cable and satellite services. Some people who are no longer able to pay for cable or satellite, whether they are affected by the economy or not, including younger people like me, are buying antennas and tuning into a surprising number of broadcast channels. These often become a part of the video diet that includes a fast growing menu of options available. In fact, in 2013 alone, nearly 6 million people have cut the cord. Here are some interesting statistics about people ditching cable and satellite, and going back to the antenna or giving it a second chance.
- 19.3% of all U.S. households with TVs rely solely on OTA signals — up from 17.8% from last year.
- GFK estimates 22.4 million households representing 59.7 million consumers receive television exclusively through broadcast signals and aren’t subscribing to a Pay TV cable or satellite service.
- Nearly 6% of TV households cut the cord in their current home at some point in the past, doing so to cut monthly costs from budgets and citing there isn’t enough value for the cost. Those responses were also the top answers in the 2012 survey.
- Minorities make up 41% of broadcast-only homes.
- 49% of Latino households that prefer speaking Spanish home have a Pay TV service — down from 67% in 2010.
- 28% of TV households where the head of the house is 18-34 in age, exclusively watch TV via broadcast signals, up from 18% in 2010.
- 19% of TV households where the head of the household is 35-49 relies on OTA signals; 17% in which the head of household is 50 years or older.
- Two out of 10 younger OTA households have never purchased a pay TV service.
- 30% of TV homes with an annual income less than $30,000 rely solely on OTA TV — up from 22% in 2010.
- 11% of TV households with incomes of $75,000 or greater rely solely on OTA TV
Even though we rediscover the frustration of weak or spotty receptions on our TV set, it's tough to beat the price. Antennas Direct, a maker of TV antennas, had sold 500,000 of their antennas in 2010 and 385,000 in 2009, according to its President, Richard Schneider. The sales have been over the roof since the conversion to digital, that Schneider added another assembly line in the factory to meet the demands. Antennas Direct even staged a 45-city tour to give away its most popular antenna -- the $99 Clearstream 2 -- to unemployed people who could no longer afford cable or satellite TV services.
In recent years, cable and satellite lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The rabbit ears antenna is making a surprising comeback in the digital age. Another big change in cutting the cord, is the rise of Internet video and streaming media players such as Apple TV and Roku. These boxes allow TV lovers to stream movies and TV shows on Netflix and Hulu along with other large content. Which is steadily on the rise. Cable companies thinks they will rebound once the economy improves in the future, only time will tell.
In San Francisco where I live, I get the big networks such as ABC, CBS, FOX, and CW. I also get an independent over-the-air station called KOFY, which shows reruns of popular sitcoms such as Community and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia alongside airings of older movies on the weekends. I also get local news and weather, two PBS channels, a few Spanish and Asian language networks, a Korean music video channel, Qubo, and MeTV and Antenna TV. Two retro programming subchannels that shows sitcoms and dramas from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and even the early 90's.
Even if cable companies are offering a lower cost package that might appeal to people feeling the economic recession where we get a slimmed down set of channels. Comcast offers it here in San Francisco for about $35 but I think it's useless. I personally feel that TV should be free. Before cable and satellite became common, watching TV through our old rabbit ears for free is what everyone did. I mean, why would you want to subscribe to cable and satellite when there's 200 or 300 set of channels you will never watch? Think of the money you're saving by cutting the cord. People can use pay TV services through Hulu and Netflix to stream the latest hit movies, while supplement it with over-the-air broadcasting through an antenna. Looking at it, over-the-air is the new basic cable.
For me, I don't miss cable at all. Instead, I got a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna and I now watch over-the-air news and local sports. I also watch primetime shows on FOX and ABC, and I stream the latest movies on Roku. I now pay $96 a year for Hulu, which is a huge improvement from spending $1,200 on Comcast digital cable every year. Free TV is something that should be embraced. I personally think cable will become a dinosaur within the next 5 years, and the rabbit ears antenna revival in the digital age along with streaming media players and Internet video, will be a big part of that all happening.
