[lxgr]

I've heard about that, but I wonder what the economics here are.

Are enough people really willing to pay for the convenience of, I guess, not having to switch between antenna and cable input, or are living outside of broadcast coverage of the stations they care about?

Weirdly, it's exactly the opposite in Germany: Supposedly the public broadcasters have to pay the cable companies to get them to carry their programs.

[TylerE]

The average American barely knows how to turn their TV on and off. Switching inputs is a scary prospect. Having rabbit ears on your tv is also def a social status signaling thing.

[lxgr]

> Having rabbit ears on your tv is also def a social status signaling thing.

That's what I've long suspected. No wonder it's a great opportunity to save/waste money :)

Supposedly in some social classes and age groups, broadcast TV is literally unheard of, with Best Buy promoting TV antennas accordingly ("free cable!") and people suspecting it's a scam or illegal.

[nemomarx]

to be fair, if you heard about a free tv online streaming service you might assume their business model is suspicious?

broadcast is kinda uniquely positioned.