I agree with what TV_Ken said about local channels with Fubo. I think I got one of them with TVE. However Hulu gives me all the main ones(might be different for you). Outside of fox only doing primetime times. But that has been consistent with any provider I have used.
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Does that vary by location? Because Iām using Fubo and TVE and do get ABC and Fox into Channelsā¦
From what I can tell, yes. It depends on if the provider has a deal with the local station to provide. It has been miss an hit with youtube, fubo, hulu. Only hulu provided me TVE access to all 4. Fubo only gave me NBC and might have had FOX. Youtube FOX and CBS.
No, but thats not my decision. I didn't put up the broadcast towers. People who live in a big city, or a medium sized city, can usually find a way to get free TV (which happens to be most people). People who live outside might be able to conjure a way to get signals from the city. It might require a bigger antenna and a high elevation to mount it, and possibly is unreasonable and cost-prohibitive. Thats just how it is, not how I think it should be. But broadcasting in the city provides much more people with good reception, so the broadcast networks are serving the most people they can with the antennas they have decided to put up. The rest are a minority that will need to find some kind of alternative way for some company (such as cable) to relay the broadcast signals. This is unfortunate, but a price paid for choosing to live on the outside of the metro area. I do think that people who frequently watch television (users on this forum), should think about OTA reception when purchasing a house.
Keep digging.
Seriously - cabletv itself wouldnāt exist if OTA coverage was as ubiquitous as you say it should be. It only started because of trying to improve OTA channel coverage.
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I agree. And paying for a service to rebroadcast OTA (plus some additional cable-only channels) is what cable users do. If you have no alternative, then this is the cost of living where you do. Channels offers TVE, streamlinks, m3u playlists. Those are decent options, and you may be able to get some OTA broadcasts like that. It costs more to live in a place like Hawaii because someone has to ship everything there from the mainland.
I agree. However, when I moved here 14 years ago, Comcast and Verizon charged what I considered a reasonable monthly fee for the services they provided. Over the years, the prices and fees kept going up as they added more and more things that I would never watch, and required higher tiers to get the things I did watch.
What put me over the top was the "Fees" added on to the advertised price. Comcast charges $22.25 Broadcast Fee, and $14.10 Regional Sports Fee. I have never watched regional sports in my life, and I'll never pay $14.10 per month for something that I don't want. Broadcast fees started out as something reasonable like $6 per month, and they are now absurdly high for something that should be free because it is advertiser supported.
Moving to a different house is not an option, but if I ever move again, I will make sure I will have good OTA.
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Last year, I switched from Tivo with FiOS Cablecard to Channels DVR with FiOS TVE and LOVE IT. No problems here.
What about ATSC 3.0? I haven't actually tried it yet, since I get good 1.0 reception, but isn't the new ATSC 3.0 advertised as being able to provide good quality coverage to much greater area? Maybe this is the solution.
Yes. It's the only feature that interests me at this point. It works as advertised for my needs. My details at the end of this reply.
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fubo at $65/mo for the cheapest package is just a smidge more than philo + locast was ($20 after t-mo discount on philo).
so now we're equating living in an area with poor OTA reception to living on an island literally in the middle of the damn ocean?
i live in the second largest market in the country, and they just recently (as in about a month ago, mid-december) started broadcasting in 3.0...and only one of the big four along with CW and an independent station. i don't have any faith that there will be any kind of major 3.0 rollout coming any time soon.
this is exactly what pisses me off about the cable pricing structure. when locast went kaput, i considered a spectrum basic cable account just for locals...
problem 1: they don't offer a locals only package. you have to get digital starter or whatever the hell they call it, which includes a ton of extra channels i wouldn't need because i can get them via streaming/TVE.
problem 2: the $45 advertised rate for the lowest digital package ends up being $70 all in after regional sports fee + broadcast fee + whatever other fees they add. they can get ****ed with that nonsense.
It may help some situations, but, ironically, it will probably help cities more, all-in-all, due to multipath improvements. I guess we all have to move, in your mind.
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I'm in the #1 market, and there isn't any ATSC3 on the air at all.
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Spectrum has me by the short hairs, due to the cable-only phenomenon of having 2 market's locals. I wish the laws would change for streaming and DBS to compete on that front.
I just checked my FUBO and I get ABC,CBS, FOX, NBC and CW. No PBS. Also, they don't work as TVE. So, I guess it is dependent on your market.
I realize the primary topic of this thread is the use of ChannelsDVR with cable channels; for those of us (including myself) who use this app for the purpose of having OTA channels available on an Apple TV AND the ability to DVR those channels, it continues to tick all the boxes. One row of my Apple TV interface reflects the ChannelsDVR app along with a few streaming service apps to fill in some viewing content gaps. Coupled with a reasonably priced, fairly fast internet connection, my wallet and I are glad that I made the switch from DirecTV and cable companies years ago. Thanks to the Channels developers for creating and implementing this app! 
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- 1 for OOMA. have had it for over 10 years and average about $7 per month
can we change the name of this thread? it is misleading and inflammatory.
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