CharlieAllnut t1_jdsuxqf wrote on March 26, 2023 at 10:42 PM

It's a good question. I have no idea why people are getting pushed out of shape.

I wonder how economical it is for stations to broadcast over the air. They can't gather data on viewers but maybe it's just people who get or want streaming.

Red_Redditor_Reddit t1_jdswu2c wrote on March 26, 2023 at 10:56 PM

I can understand it being economical if there is a critical mass already there and waiting. Like twenty years ago I could understand this. Now that doesn't make as much sense. You have to get a FCC license, get a building and tower, get the equipment and stuff. It's not a trivial thing and takes a fair bit of investment. Streaming over the internet is basically just renting servers from amazon. Maybe it costs more with a large viewership, I don't know. OTA costs the same for one viewer or two million viewers. But factor in the inconvenience of setting up an antenna, maybe like a tivo, and it becomes kinda a pain in the butt. I just don't know why people still use it.

Latter_Feeling2656 t1_jdszgyx wrote on March 26, 2023 at 11:16 PM

>You have to get a FCC license, get a building and tower, get the equipment and stuff.

The buildings and towers mostly already exist.

Edit: to expand on this, public TV where I am used to be two channels that broadcast from one tower. Today that tower transmits a public channel and six subchannels. They sold the second channel, so it's now a commercial channel with seven subchannels, and those all broadcast from the same tower. And then low power channel was licensed, and it goes from the same tower with six subchannels. So, two signals to twenty, using the same infrastructure.

Red_Redditor_Reddit t1_jdt99a3 wrote on March 27, 2023 at 12:33 AM

Thanks for the reply. I know there is already a preexisting infrastructure, but Im still not quite sure how it gets the utilisation that makes sense. I would discuss it more, but I gotta close this post. I have no idea why I'm getting so much hate comments, but this isn't productive. I don't deserve this. I really do appreciate you though.