General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Roseanne revival is incredibly honest about life in Trump's America [View all]NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)They cut the cord and use the TV reception for morning news and sports. In fact, OTA (over the air) receiving is growing every year as people realize they can get their HD TV without a $200 cable bill. That said, I spend far more time watching Netflix for shows, but an antenna is a one time only cost vs monthly and I like my weather/traffic in the morning.
As for antennas themselves, there is no such thing as a digital antenna. It's a marketing gimmick - most people in a major city can use rabbit ears and ring to great effect. The old antennas still work, though some were optimized for VHF (54-88MHz and 174-216 MHz), and most TV stations were moved into the UHF bands (470 - 806 MHz). With a digital format they can broadcast on a higher frequency channel and still show up on the TV as their original channel. For example, WFSB CBS Channel 3, in Connecticut broadcasts on UHF channel 33 (584-590 MHz), but appears on my TV as channel 3. The lower band of VHF was mostly eliminated during the switch to open these frequencies up for emergency communications.
The examples people cite of losing a channel with the digital switch are likely caused by either having a VHF optimized antenna and the frequency changed to UHF, or the UHF being even more "line of sight" sensitive and terrain blocks the new signal.