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TV Execs Warn FCC: NextGen TV DRM Could Turn Free TV Into Gambling and Pay-TV Platforms
(www.antennaland.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Let's just cut the shit and admit that over-the-air broadcast television is effectively dead.
This is why Net Neutrality mattered, because the future isn't in old tech (radio broadcast) being consumed by DRM in desperate plays to stay relevant and/or profitable.
The future was always in things like YouTube, Netflix, and other online content delivery services. Which is why strict regulation of Net Neutrality and strict regulation of such services was and continues to be so important.
No, the infrastructure isn't "open" like broadcast airwaves, which technically anyone with a license and equipment can jump into using, whereas internet infrastructure is all privately owned wired networking. The fact that it is different isn't an excuse for any and all governments to have just effectively given up on regulation of those spaces when they're where the media-consuming public happen to be. That's why we needed legislation of these things instead of a back and forth wankery of the FCC changing how the internet is classified over and over again in between warring political factions.
I can almost guarantee you that nobody under the age of 30 gives a singly flying fuck about having an antenna on a television. They're probably watching more than half their media on their phone or tablet anyway.
The real reason that this kind of change is happening to over-the-air broadcasting is because it doesn't have enough viewers, and by extension, enough advertising, to sustain it as a model anymore.
I think the loss of over-the-air programming isn't the best thing, but I also think it's stupid to keep holding on to this idea like it matters very much in 2026 where if you asked a kid in their twenties if they even knew what an antenna for a television was they'd probably go "what the fuck are you even talking about?"
But I mean we can't even regulate shit like paid political speech online needing to say that it is paid political speech, so fat chance of any useful legislation coming anytime soon. US government in particular has been broken as fuck for three decades.
I'm Canadian ans live near a fairly large US city.
I only use OTA and sites that sail the high seas.
My 20$ antenna gets me between 50 - 60 channels - weather and season dependent.
If/when OTA dies, my TV will never be used again.
You're very lucky. I lived 60 miles south of Seattle, 30 miles southwest of Tacoma, and was able to get a single channel with an antenna because my city was in a valley surrounded by mountainous terrain and so the broadcast signals from the TV towers were all blocked by the terrain. No local stations, no local towers. Seattle actually has plenty of stations, but unless you're in the right areas, they're nearly impossible to access.
I also worked in local television for a long time in the early 2000s and 3 out of 4 of the stations I worked at no longer exist and there are fewer and fewer rural stations, so unless you live in the big city or unless you're in a very flat area where the big city signal can get to you, you're shit out of luck.