Local channel blackouts

One thing that has impacted many cable services over the years was the situation of a local station and a local cable company having a dispute. That's been mostly a thing of the past since most local stations have let the networks do the negotiations. However, it still happens from time to time. More stations might be impacted, but the whole situation comes up a lot less.

I'm not here to say that the network negotiations are a better way than the individual station negotiations. Rather, I'm here to say that I don't run into that.

You see, I dropped cable in early 2011. Over the last dozen years, I've not had cable, and didn't worry about local channels.

A clarification: I did have small locals only cable service from time to time when Comcast would have a special where Internet plus locals was cheaper than Internet alone. It seems that wouldn't be the case, but a couple of times over the last dozen years, that was the case, so I would sign up for a year at a lower price, then go back to Internet only when it was done. I didn't watch the local channels, I simply had the service because it was cheaper to include them to exclude them, as unusual as that sounds.

Anyway, I (generally) haven't had cable over the last 12+ years. I also haven't had satellite service, much less satellite with local channels.

When streaming services such as YouTube TV, DirecTV Now (as it was originally known), and the like began operating, local channels were available via streaming. But, if you've been paying attention, you've come to realize that local stations can have disputes with streaming services, just as they have had with cable and satellite services.

But I've avoided all that. How? An antenna, that's how.

Having a TV antenna has made local channels available. I don't subscribe to streaming services year-round, but I can watch local TV year round.

Carriage dispute? My Streaming Life doesn't care about those. My over the air antenna gets me my local channels. My Streaming Life is good.