With an $80 antenna, I get 11 channels from a city that is 50 miles away. All I had to do is nail a bracket onto the edge of my roof.
I am missing CBS and ABC, but I am planning to fill those in with a VHF antenna that points to another city.
It seems to me there is no value in getting a degraded copy of local broadcast TV on cable
So, you spent $80 and had to climb onto the roof to install it. You have existing knowledge about what antenna to purchase. You know you need a VHF antenna to get other channels. You know where to purchase this stuff.
All of that isn't existing knowledge to the general public and climbing onto a room isn't a general skill-set. There is definite value in a cable guy coming in and setting everything up for you.
Actually, we're only a generation away from when people did exactly that. My father bought his TV antenna, as did everyone else I knew. Installed it an the roof (a big, unwieldy thing), stood there and turned it's direction while I called up when the picture was best.
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So, you spent $80 and had to climb onto the roof to install it. You have existing knowledge about what antenna to purchase. You know you need a VHF antenna to get other channels. You know where to purchase this stuff.
All of that isn't existing knowledge to the general public and climbing onto a room isn't a general skill-set. There is definite value in a cable guy coming in and setting everything up for you.
Actually, we're only a generation away from when people did exactly that. My father bought his TV antenna, as did everyone else I knew. Installed it an the roof (a big, unwieldy thing), stood there and turned it's direction while I called up when the picture was best.
So, it's not that far-fetched.
Unless you stay home to wait for the cable guy and he never shows up...