Paid TV channels

[joechimp]

I consider myself extremely lucky. I get all the channels I would normally watch if I had cable.
The major networks and PBS satisfy my viewing needs.
So yes I am lucky as can be to be able to still get them for free.

By the way, most of the over the air channels are HD quality.

JOE....... many words came to my mind....



These people that control "our" air waves.

I love nature & informative channels... in whatever continent.

I Like them as well. With 6 PBS stations I am able to satisfy that need.

I feel kind of bad that not everyone is able to get many free channels. That should have never been squeezed in any area. The cable lobby's have deep pockets.

[sammy2fish]

Don't worry for now.... Your safe-keeping is good for a time now.......

[alex]

Joe, you said some of the channels you normally get include CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX.  I have Dish TV and wished I could get Fox. Fox has sports I would really like to watch. My wife set up “Parental Controls” so now my channel selector won’t go that far to the right. 

[joechimp]

Joe, you said some of the channels you normally get include CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX.  I have Dish TV and wished I could get Fox. Fox has sports I would really like to watch. My wife set up “Parental Controls” so now my channel selector won’t go that far to the right. 

Yes FOX is one of my channels. It does have a lot of sports. Like I said earlier, I am pretty lucky.
Sundays have the advantage of having football on FOX and CBS.

[MGBguy]

I just want to add my "plan" here in the USA.

Comcast  Digital Preferred TV ,  Internet, and phone service bundle @ $154.41 (recent monthly bill).

I dropped FairPoint  land-line telephone service to save a few dollars. There is little financial incentive to drop the Comcast land-line service.

Regardless, at my location, my Comcast service is more than adequate.

[gseaman]

Regardless, at my location, my Comcast service is more than adequate.

Except that if you want to watch Comcast cable online, with Comcast internet, you have to use Silverlight. ;(

Galen

[btrussell]

It can be irritating.
I took it to extremes and dumped them all. Now I have over the air TV with my rabbit ears antenna.
I get from 15 to 24 channels depending on atmospheric conditions. It can be a pain at time when a channel is flickering from interference , but in the end it is free so I deal with it.

You're profile tells me little.  Joe, what country are you in?

In my country (Canada), at least in MY part of this country... just an antenna gives you three channels.  One of the three is French..

So you can see why it is required to find another TV source... 

http://www.crackle.com/c/shows

http://dsc.discovery.com/ (what is on now? 6:30-8:30am, paid programming!)

http://www.history.com/videos

http://animal.discovery.com/


I can sometimes get one over the air channel here in Canada.

[alex]

I have found myself going back to sammy2fish's thread about paid TV channels. Some of the posts have got me thinking about the money I spend on items I really don’t need. For example joechimp’s post “I have over the air TV with my rabbit ears antenna and get from 15 to 24 channels depending on atmospheric conditions” or scoundrel’s “can't even remember when it was that I owned or watched TV and feeling just fine without it.” btrussell posted some links to viewing TV over the net. I currently use hulu to watch programs that I didn't catch live.  The question I’m asking myself is, Why am I paying for cable or satellite TV? In my area I can watch 12 to 15 channels with rabbit ears. I have a high speed internet connection. This thread could save us money. As I’m typing this I can hear a TV that’s been on for seven hours with no one watching it. It just occurred to me that we have 10 ceiling fans that have been spinning for at least five years. I guess I have more than the TV to look at.

[Just17]

I haven't seen any posts about free to view satellite channels (except for my own).

Is this something that is not available generally or in other locations?

On one satellite position I picked up somewhere between 800 & 900 channels last night when I used Kaffeine to tune in.

Of those some 300 were free to view .......  and somewhere around 90 of them were ones I would watch .....  the balance being promotional TV, sexually oriented, religious, foreign (to me), and music TV which I would not watch.

It is my understanding that there are even more available over mainland Europe at other satellite positions.

Yet I have not read of similar (in this thread) for North America.

Are there not many free to view satellite channels available over NA?

[sammy2fish]

I haven't seen any posts about free to view satellite channels (except for my own).

Is this something that is not available generally or in other locations?

On one satellite position I picked up somewhere between 800 & 900 channels last night when I used Kaffeine to tune in.

Of those some 300 were free to view .......  and somewhere around 90 of them were ones I would watch .....  the balance being promotional TV, sexually oriented, religious, foreign (to me), and music TV which I would not watch.

It is my understanding that there are even more available over mainland Europe at other satellite positions.

Yet I have not read of similar (in this thread) for North America.

Are there not many free to view satellite channels available over NA?

Not in my "neck of the woods"...

[Neo]

I have found myself going back to sammy2fish's thread about paid TV channels. Some of the posts have got me thinking about the money I spend on items I really don’t need. For example joechimp’s post “I have over the air TV with my rabbit ears antenna and get from 15 to 24 channels depending on atmospheric conditions” or scoundrel’s “can't even remember when it was that I owned or watched TV and feeling just fine without it.” btrussell posted some links to viewing TV over the net. I currently use hulu to watch programs that I didn't catch live.  The question I’m asking myself is, Why am I paying for cable or satellite TV? In my area I can watch 12 to 15 channels with rabbit ears. I have a high speed internet connection. This thread could save us money. As I’m typing this I can hear a TV that’s been on for seven hours with no one watching it. It just occurred to me that we have 10 ceiling fans that have been spinning for at least five years. I guess I have more than the TV to look at.

The problem with being in Canada is the version of Netflix that is available is not the same as in the US (far fewer TV shows available up here and the movies tend to be relatively old).

There is a way to stream the US version, but by the time you add everything up, it's simpler (and I think cheaper) to just pay for cable/satellite.

If you happen to live close the the US border and a major Canadian city like Toronto then you may get lucky and be able to pick up a few OTA channels, otherwise you're SOL.

[Just17]

I haven't seen any posts about free to view satellite channels (except for my own).

Is this something that is not available generally or in other locations?

On one satellite position I picked up somewhere between 800 & 900 channels last night when I used Kaffeine to tune in.

Of those some 300 were free to view .......  and somewhere around 90 of them were ones I would watch .....  the balance being promotional TV, sexually oriented, religious, foreign (to me), and music TV which I would not watch.

It is my understanding that there are even more available over mainland Europe at other satellite positions.

Yet I have not read of similar (in this thread) for North America.

Are there not many free to view satellite channels available over NA?

Not in my "neck of the woods"...

It seems there is little choice in Canada ........

There is little or no free Canadian DVB-S content available to users of medium-size dishes as much of the available Ku-band satellite bandwidth is occupied by pay-TV operators Shaw Direct and Bell TV, although larger dishes (over 3 feet/90 cm) can pick up some content. FTA signals may be scattered across multiple satellites, requiring a motor or multiple LNBs to receive everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-air

Quite a contrast with Europe it seems   .......  have a look at this listing .......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E

[sammy2fish]

The pro's and con's, from one country to another...