How do you primarily watch TV?

markbot · 01-20-2010, 10:44 PM

I hear a growing number of people watch TV over antenna.

I should clarify that the "I watch TV less than 1 hour per month" option is essentially that you don't pay for cable, satellite...don't owner a TV, don't watch TV shows over the net...etc. But you might watch TV sometimes over a friend's house.

pholy · 01-20-2010, 10:49 PM

I do; it's way cheaper. For those of you converted to digital, the antennas are not too huge, and the compression quality is much better than cable or satellite.

Mind you, usually I just read or listen to music.

markbot · 01-20-2010, 11:16 PM

I watch TV over antenna, internet, and have netflix. The cost per month...is the cost of netflix so less than $20.

Since I really don't watch sports, except for the occasional MLB or NFL playoff game, which is on broadcast TV anyway, this works for me and is really seems far superior on a cost/benefit basis to cable in general. I know the vast majority of households watch TV through cable though. When I am over my friend's or family's houses, I am amazed by how many TV channels they get...and even more amazed by how useless those channels are as the tv quality isn't very high in my opinion...so the cost doesn't seem to be worth it. why pay so much for the movie channels when you can get unlimited selection from netflix?

ficbot · 01-20-2010, 11:31 PM

I have a plain old hand me down tv with an antenna. Of the three channels I reliably get (five if I turn on the HDTV converter) one has two of the shows I like. There are two other shows I watch on-line. Occasionally I will go on-line to watch a decorating show or something random; most of the networks here have decent websites.

Aside from the one-off cost of the antenna, I pay $0 for TV. I do miss being able to watch Biggest Loser the day it airs (I had free cable in my last apartment) but that does not seem worth the extra $35 a month basic cable costs here.

montsnmags · 01-20-2010, 11:56 PM

I watch telly via antenna. We thought about Foxtel/Austar (consider them cable/premium cable/satellite), but decided that a lot of what they've got extra is just crap, we'd get sufficient watchable stuff on free-to-air if we just Tivo'd it (a one-off cost for the Tivo box), and that, with our seachange move, we wanted to spend less time watching the telly and more time enjoying the point of the move (suffice to say, it's a pretty nice place to live). What that means is that pretty much everything we watch has been Tivo'd, and we're never watching as it's broadcast.

We're not really into much in the way of series such that we must have it now!, and never miss an episode (and it wouldn't make much difference anyway - it's often the free-to-air/antenna channels that have that content). I'll concede an exception in that we like NCIS, and were pretty happy the free-to-air/antenna channel had the recent newest episodes coming out less than a week after US broadcast.

We still watch lots of telly though (I sometimes miss from Foxtel a couple of the music channels and the cooking shows on the lifestyle channels), and our free-to-air still has a reasonably dominant position in bidding for content, and so we still get stuff on free-to-air pretty much straight away from OS (by which I mean, as early as it can be got - we're still usually behind, cable or antenna, on OS content).

I think things are different down this way.

Cheers,
Marc

AprilHare · 01-21-2010, 12:00 AM

Important option missing here: Microwave pay TV.
- Very important in Australia.

phenomshel · 01-21-2010, 12:08 AM

After being the last option for over a year, we finally got satellite TV back a few months ago. I still don't watch much prime time TV, and found myself watching Glee episodes via Hulu online because I am never home when they are originally aired. I do enjoy having Food Network and Home and Garden TV again.

KarenH · 01-21-2010, 12:30 AM

Where I live there are only two choices - satellite or nothing. No cable available in the area, too far away from the nearest TV market for an antenna to work, and no high-speed internet (except satellite, which is way too expensive for my budget). Since I come from a family of rabid sports fans, needless to say we have satellite!

happy_terd · 01-21-2010, 12:37 AM

I don't watch television all that much anymore. Only time I ever really hear it on is when the family is using it. I do however watch a butt load of movies from my collection and blockbuster. Does that count? Regular sitcoms I don't really care for. I dont pay for cable channels and the movies shown on the regular channels cut out all of the good parts. So I stick to DVDS.

AprilHare · 01-21-2010, 01:20 AM

It's just my impression, however it seems like American antenna TV isn't really into multichannelling yet. Here in Australia, we've gone from 5 analogue stations to more than 11 digital channels, with more to be added.

Sweetpea · 01-21-2010, 02:17 AM

As far as I know, you can't watch analog TV by antenna anymore. Only digital. The three Dutch channels are always free, if you want more, you have to pay. And the selection is not that large.

We have a premium cable subscription. The only thing we don't have are those channels you have to pay extra for (that is, above the default subscription for a premium service) (mostly movie channels and extra sports channels)

AprilHare · 01-21-2010, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

As far as I know, you can't watch analog TV by antenna anymore. Only digital. The three Dutch channels are always free, if you want more, you have to pay. And the selection is not that large.

We have a premium cable subscription. The only thing we don't have are those channels you have to pay extra for (that is, above the default subscription for a premium service) (mostly movie channels and extra sports channels)

Australia will complete the transition to digital antenna by 2013.

HarryT · 01-21-2010, 03:01 AM

The UK is currently in the middle of a switchover from analogue to digital TV - my part of the country switched off its analogue TV channels at the start of December last year. We can now get about 90-odd channels (TV and radio) via terrestrial digital broadcasting, the overwhelming majority of which are free.

Cable TV isn't available in the village in which I live (it's available a couple of miles up the road). Could get satellite, but I really don't watch enough TV to make it worthwhile - it's really aimed at people who like sports or movies, and I'm not a big fan of either.

Sparrow · 01-21-2010, 04:15 AM

I've got cable, but I download most of the TV programmes I watch to my PC.

There are so many commercial breaks on our non-BBC channels that watching programmes as they're broadcast is unpleasant.

Javed · 01-21-2010, 04:49 AM

I selected antenna and internet. I watch a lot of stuff from dvd mainly though.

View Poll Results: How do you primarily watch TV?
Premium Cable	14	14.89%
Basic Cable	13	13.83%
Satellite	19	20.21%
Antenna	5	5.32%
Internet	16	17.02%
Antenna + Internet	12	12.77%
I watch TV less than 1 hour per month	15	15.96%
Voters: 94. You may not vote on this poll

01-20-2010, 10:44 PM	#1
markbot Guru Posts: 612 Karma: 7511929 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New York, NY Device: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2	How do you primarily watch TV? I hear a growing number of people watch TV over antenna. I should clarify that the "I watch TV less than 1 hour per month" option is essentially that you don't pay for cable, satellite...don't owner a TV, don't watch TV shows over the net...etc. But you might watch TV sometimes over a friend's house. Last edited by markbot; 01-20-2010 at 10:48 PM.

01-21-2010, 12:00 AM	#6
AprilHare Wizard Posts: 2,981 Karma: 11862367 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T2	Important option missing here: Microwave pay TV. - Very important in Australia. Last edited by AprilHare; 01-21-2010 at 12:03 AM.

01-21-2010, 03:01 AM	#13
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The UK is currently in the middle of a switchover from analogue to digital TV - my part of the country switched off its analogue TV channels at the start of December last year. We can now get about 90-odd channels (TV and radio) via terrestrial digital broadcasting, the overwhelming majority of which are free. Cable TV isn't available in the village in which I live (it's available a couple of miles up the road). Could get satellite, but I really don't watch enough TV to make it worthwhile - it's really aimed at people who like sports or movies, and I'm not a big fan of either. Last edited by HarryT; 01-21-2010 at 03:06 AM.

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01-20-2010, 10:49 PM	#2
pholy Booklegger Posts: 1,801 Karma: 7999816 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Device: BeBook(1 & 2010), PEZ, PRS-505, Kobo BT, PRS-T1, Playbook, Kobo Touch	I do; it's way cheaper. For those of you converted to digital, the antennas are not too huge, and the compression quality is much better than cable or satellite. Mind you, usually I just read or listen to music.

01-20-2010, 11:16 PM	#3
markbot Guru Posts: 612 Karma: 7511929 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New York, NY Device: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2	I watch TV over antenna, internet, and have netflix. The cost per month...is the cost of netflix so less than $20. Since I really don't watch sports, except for the occasional MLB or NFL playoff game, which is on broadcast TV anyway, this works for me and is really seems far superior on a cost/benefit basis to cable in general. I know the vast majority of households watch TV through cable though. When I am over my friend's or family's houses, I am amazed by how many TV channels they get...and even more amazed by how useless those channels are as the tv quality isn't very high in my opinion...so the cost doesn't seem to be worth it. why pay so much for the movie channels when you can get unlimited selection from netflix?

01-20-2010, 11:31 PM	#4
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I have a plain old hand me down tv with an antenna. Of the three channels I reliably get (five if I turn on the HDTV converter) one has two of the shows I like. There are two other shows I watch on-line. Occasionally I will go on-line to watch a decorating show or something random; most of the networks here have decent websites. Aside from the one-off cost of the antenna, I pay $0 for TV. I do miss being able to watch Biggest Loser the day it airs (I had free cable in my last apartment) but that does not seem worth the extra $35 a month basic cable costs here.

01-20-2010, 11:56 PM	#5
montsnmags Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,155 Karma: 4632658 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	I watch telly via antenna. We thought about Foxtel/Austar (consider them cable/premium cable/satellite), but decided that a lot of what they've got extra is just crap, we'd get sufficient watchable stuff on free-to-air if we just Tivo'd it (a one-off cost for the Tivo box), and that, with our seachange move, we wanted to spend less time watching the telly and more time enjoying the point of the move (suffice to say, it's a pretty nice place to live). What that means is that pretty much everything we watch has been Tivo'd, and we're never watching as it's broadcast. We're not really into much in the way of series such that we must have it now!, and never miss an episode (and it wouldn't make much difference anyway - it's often the free-to-air/antenna channels that have that content). I'll concede an exception in that we like NCIS, and were pretty happy the free-to-air/antenna channel had the recent newest episodes coming out less than a week after US broadcast. We still watch lots of telly though (I sometimes miss from Foxtel a couple of the music channels and the cooking shows on the lifestyle channels), and our free-to-air still has a reasonably dominant position in bidding for content, and so we still get stuff on free-to-air pretty much straight away from OS (by which I mean, as early as it can be got - we're still usually behind, cable or antenna, on OS content). I think things are different down this way. Cheers, Marc

01-21-2010, 12:08 AM	#7
phenomshel ZCD BombShel Posts: 4,793 Karma: 8293322 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: The Frozen North (aka Illinois, USA) Device: iPad, STB Kindle Oasis	After being the last option for over a year, we finally got satellite TV back a few months ago. I still don't watch much prime time TV, and found myself watching Glee episodes via Hulu online because I am never home when they are originally aired. I do enjoy having Food Network and Home and Garden TV again.

01-21-2010, 12:30 AM	#8
KarenH Addict Posts: 281 Karma: 37762 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: NW Washington State, USA Device: K3	Where I live there are only two choices - satellite or nothing. No cable available in the area, too far away from the nearest TV market for an antenna to work, and no high-speed internet (except satellite, which is way too expensive for my budget). Since I come from a family of rabid sports fans, needless to say we have satellite!

01-21-2010, 12:37 AM	#9
happy_terd Banned Posts: 13,045 Karma: 10105011 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Finally made it to Walmart. Device: PRS 420	I don't watch television all that much anymore. Only time I ever really hear it on is when the family is using it. I do however watch a butt load of movies from my collection and blockbuster. Does that count? Regular sitcoms I don't really care for. I dont pay for cable channels and the movies shown on the regular channels cut out all of the good parts. So I stick to DVDS.

01-21-2010, 01:20 AM	#10
AprilHare Wizard Posts: 2,981 Karma: 11862367 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T2	It's just my impression, however it seems like American antenna TV isn't really into multichannelling yet. Here in Australia, we've gone from 5 analogue stations to more than 11 digital channels, with more to be added.

01-21-2010, 02:17 AM	#11
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	As far as I know, you can't watch analog TV by antenna anymore. Only digital. The three Dutch channels are always free, if you want more, you have to pay. And the selection is not that large. We have a premium cable subscription. The only thing we don't have are those channels you have to pay extra for (that is, above the default subscription for a premium service) (mostly movie channels and extra sports channels)

01-21-2010, 04:15 AM	#14
Sparrow Wizard Posts: 4,395 Karma: 1358132 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: UK Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3	I've got cable, but I download most of the TV programmes I watch to my PC. There are so many commercial breaks on our non-BBC channels that watching programmes as they're broadcast is unpleasant.

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01-21-2010, 04:49 AM	#15
Javed Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,270 Karma: 1126878541 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Astak Pocket PRO, iPod Touch, PRS-650	I selected antenna and internet. I watch a lot of stuff from dvd mainly though.

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