We are raising a generation of kids who don't know tv is free as the good ole wabbit ears still have a place in the land of television. The Wall Street Journal reported today:
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,” 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% 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.
But many consumers still aren’t getting the signal.
Carlos Villalobos, 21, who was selling tube-shaped digital antennas at a swap meet in San Diego recently, says customers often ask if his $20 to $25 products are legal. “They don’t trust me when I say that these are actually free local channels,” he says.
Earlier this year, he got an earful from a woman who didn’t get it. “She was mad,” he recalls. “She says, ‘No, you can’t live in America for free, what are you talking about?’”
Almost a third of Americans (29%) are unaware local TV is available free, according to a June survey by the National Association of Broadcasters, an industry trade group....
Richard Schneider, founder of a St. Louis manufacturing company called Antennas Direct, says his occupation results in awkward small talk. “If I’m at a party and I tell people what I do for a living, they’ll say, ‘That’s still a thing?’ I’d think you’d be out of business by now.’”
Quite the opposite. He started selling antennas as a hobby more than 15 years ago and only expected to sell a few hundred each year. He says he sold 75,000 antennas in June. Even the latest high-definition flat-screen TVs need an antenna to get free broadcasts.
Michelle Herrick, 39, a photographer in Phoenix, says she was desperate to cancel her cable subscription after her bill topped $200 a month. The only reason she hadn’t was because she wanted local stations.
Then, about two years ago, her mother told her about modern antennas. Now, Ms. Herrick is the one who regularly has to explain to puzzled guests how she’s able to watch free television. “Everyone I talked to, they had no idea.” Rest of article.
Kingfish note: Go ahead, laugh.
Dear WJTV, WLBT, and WAPT: You might want to publicize this little fact the next time you get into a contract dispute with Directtv and Dish.
The WSJ had some funny comments:
For millions of Millennials who grew up knowing only Starbucks, many were surprised that a device called a Coffee Pot could be plugged into the wall, have water and ground coffee beans added to it, and produce freshly made coffee for a fraction of the $5 price charged by Starbucks for bitter European sludge...with whipped cream and cherries on top.
In other news, you can dry your clothes on a clothesline, brew your own coffee, and even talk in real time on a device called a telephone.
Just tell them its new TV "air" technology and they'll get it.
33 comments:
Sort of sad that people do not know what is right under their nose.
If your TV is high definition all you need is a paperclip to stick in the antenna jack, and search the channels in the menu. I learned that from Cowboy Maloney.
There is quite the trend to cut the cord going on. Maybe some of these cable and satellite providers can get the message that these $150/month bills are asinine. We don't need all of this mindless TV that people are wating and actually paying money to watch, ie. housewives, the Kardassians and whatever else that's mindless tv.
We cut the cord about 3 years ago, putting an antenna in the attic picks up all local broadcasts very well and the picture quality exceeds that of cable for sure!!! we mostly stream Nexflix, HULU, etc. and have never looked back. we just got tired of paying all that money when we watched maybe less than 10% of the channels we paid for.
12:30 is right.
I was playing $67 for Directv and it went up to $113 after promotional pricing went out. I researched cord cutting and was ready to make the move and I called them. They lowered my bill to $42 for 12 months. No longer paying the fees for extra TVs ($15) and got an additional $10 discount.
I stayed with them but it seems that the companies are getting the word that something is better than nothing.
125 plus channels and still can't find a thing to watch. Most channels have reruns over and over and the "new" content is horrible. How many fake reality shows do we need?
Trust me, millenials know tv is free. It's called Bittorrent, newsgroups, kodi, and (redacted) the real question is do Gen x'ers and boomers know?
THere is a new reality show on tonite.....Down and Out in Oxford. It's about a coach who was pretty set financially and then he becomes homeless when he is caught up with. I've got my popcorn ready
After Hurricane Katrina, my young son asks, "Dad, why can't we watch TV?" I replied, "Because there's no power to it right now, son."
"OK," he said, "let's just watch something on the DVD player."
Hey, 2:05, the question remains: Does your son take after you or your wife?
The broadcast HD channels are so much better than Comcast and Dtv. We were watching a show on the air last night on the 60" 4k UHD and I swear you could see the individual pores on people's faces.
I can confirm. Mine were amazed that I could get channels over an HD antenna.
Over the air TV only reinforces how much f'ing money we are wasting on MPB. There's an umbilical that should have been cut long ago.
Someone patent the name "iAir" along with a swanky looking antenna and cash in.
If I run two wires fro my tin foil hat to my tv will that work
@150...um, you must not understand the pop culture nomenclature you are trying to use to look hip. Gen X...we know all about it - can't watch crap if the Pres is on, either. We remember when cable first came to our towns - real cable, the kind that screwed into the back of the TV. And picking up the little guide at a store in town, or using the one that came in the paper every Sunday, or - the ultimate - having TV Guide delivered to the PO box every week. We are the generation that will pay for the Boomers' SS. And look at the millennials' with disdain (our kids are Gen Y, almost as bad sometimes 'cause they think they know it all).
My current ATT-Uverse bill just doubled. I thought I might have missed a payment until I read on the bill: 'Expiration of Initial Price Reduction Period'. Running $300 now for land line, computer and television.
"If your TV is high definition all you need is a paperclip to stick in the antenna jack, and search the channels in the menu. I learned that from Cowboy Maloney."
Right; And stick another one in the wall socket with your other hand.
@6:19 call them and threaten to cancel if you're not in a contract period. If you are, say [company x] has offered to pay your early cancellation fee. Customer retention should hop right on those hidden discounts and lower your monthly rate.
Except for when it came free with an apartment I was renting, or maybe a condo I'd bought, I have NEVER had cable TV. I cannot imagine wasting that kind of money for, basically NOTHING. And now that the MSM is so openly hostile to America and Americans, I really refuse to give them money.
Free TV is more than adequate for US (we tune in during tornado warnings, and that's about it), and the picture quality, now that it's digital, truly is amazing. Those flat new antennae, by the way, are an application of concept of FRACTALS.
Hell, it should all be free. All these TV stations on cable have commercials - so they are banking already. We are paying the satellite companies for their antenna that's all.
Consumers should turn the tables on all these sorry som'itches.
C-Spire was going to save the world.....
Turns out it's expensive and does not function as well as ATT. I used to enjoy watching cable anywhere with ATT on my phone....Cspire says "we don't have that feature."
Live and learn
I am of the opinion that ANY TV station that has commercials should be free to watch.
If you subscribe to ANY TV service, cable, dish, etc. you should be able to pick and choose which channels you want without having to "bundle" anything.
NO TV SERVICE is worth more than $30 per month, no matter how many "shopping channels" it offers. Sarcasm???
Yeah, I can text and email on my phone while talking on it Cspire friends can't. Only one at a time.
I've been shocked to learn that Millenials often don't know how to read a standard clock. They grew up with digital clocks and watches that state the time rather than clocks and watches with hands and numbers on them. They have no idea what the big hand and the little hand are for. Unreal....
You ought to change your headline, KF.
Millenials were born between 1982 and 2004. Very few of us are kids and are not currently "being raised." A lot of us are grown with husbands, wives, children, jobs, and the student loan payments to prove it.
And while some of us may just be learning about rabbit ears (not me, I've used them for years), a lot of us were already smart enough not to be paying for cable/satellite service like the Boomer and GenX suckers.
I'm a millennial with OTT TV service and one of them newfangled antenna thingies. Stumbled upon a YouTube video of one in action the other night when I wasn't saving money for a house and eating avocado toast.
That article also states that nearly a third of all Americans were unaware that OTA broadcast TV was free, but "HAHAWHAHAW them dumb millennials r at it again HURR HURR" trope is good for clicks these days. Any TV station employee or engineer who had to answer phone calls during the 2009 digital transition will tell you it's not just the youngins who are morons.
Anyone born after this date in 1999 is still a kid. Too bad not enough of your "smarts" extends to the simple changing of a friggin' flat tire.
I'm a millennial and haven't had cable for around 10 years. In that time I've had an antenna to get all of the local channels in HD. Without fail, every time there's a "contract dispute" that takes one of the channels off of one of the satellite/cable providers there are tons of baby boomers on Facebook whining about not being able to watch their local channels.
Sorry to interrupt. Back to your condescending echo chamber...
Wow. Millenials, the first generation to suffer such indignities in human history. Or not. "One early example, found on clay tablets, called “A Father and His Perverse Son,” dates to 1700 BCE, although it may have originally been composed centuries earlier. In it, a Sumerian father counsels his son to pay attention in school, respect his elders, and not to hang out in the streets. The son is rebuked for not following in his father’s professional footsteps and for taking for granted how easy his life is. Any cursory search will yield similar treasures from Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. One of my personal favorites from a more recent era complains that the abundance of entertainment options is making it impossible for “kids these days” to learn, or even properly think. This was written in 1915." From a professor born in the late 19th century, dude. Not a boomer. OMG, you and Gen X are the first two generations in human history to have it so tough, so disrespected. Right. Grow up. Or understand that decrepit geezer Boomer KF just click baited you. Kids these days.
August 4, 2017 at 1:32 PM = Fake comment
Kingfish I read this on wsj other day and thought it was funny as hell. Glad you posted. But guys just for the record I am 33 and I know what rabbit ears are. If anyone in their 20s doesn't its due to bad parenting on the part of millennial parents as much as it's on stupid young people.
I cut the cord 21 years ago and have saved a boatload of money. No regrets. While I primarily watch MBP/PBS, 3:29 is right. Public television should not get a dime of tax money. The conflict of interest is unavoidable and immoral. Those of us who watch MPB/PBS can support it, and they can always sell ads. The CPB is flush with assets. That cord needs to be cut.
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