Local stations are licensed to serve defined markets, and carriage is agreed station by station rather than nationally. That is why two households a county apart can subscribe to the same service and see different results, and why round-ups that print a single national verdict are describing an average nobody lives in. Coverage also shifts when carriage agreements are renegotiated, so a check you ran two years ago is not current. Before paying anyone, enter your actual ZIP on their coverage tool and read the result for your address, not the marketing page. This is the single check that most published comparisons skip entirely.

1. 1Carriage is negotiated per market, not nationally
2. 2Coverage changes when agreements are renewed
3. 3Check your own ZIP, not a national summary table

It receives local over-the-air broadcasts directly, with no monthly charge after the hardware, and it does not depend on your internet connection at all. Reception depends on distance from the transmitters and on obstructions, so results are genuinely local: an indoor antenna can be fine in one house and useless two streets away. Where it works, it covers the local tier for $0 a month permanently, which changes the math on everything else you buy. Test it before you commit to a package priced primarily for its local coverage. If reception fails, you have learned that in an afternoon rather than a year.

1. 1No monthly cost and no dependence on your internet line
2. 2Reception varies by distance and obstructions, so test in place
3. 3Where it works, it removes the main reason to overpay elsewhere

Separate the bill into two questions: who covers local stations, and who covers everything else. If an antenna handles local for $0 a month, the remaining job is breadth, and that is where a $10 a month plan against $70-130 for cable or satellite does the heavy lifting. Twelve months is $120 here versus $840 to $1,560 for cable and satellite, or $480 to $1,080 for a bundle before regional fees. Households often pay bundle pricing mainly for the local tier and take the rest as a byproduct. Splitting the two costs usually lowers the total without losing anything you watch.

1. 1Antenna for local, subscription for breadth
2. 2$120 a year versus $840-$1,560 for cable or satellite
3. 3Do not buy a whole package to solve one tier

Breadth, not local affiliates. The catalog is 54,000+ live channels and 219,577+ on-demand titles drawn from 190+ countries, serving 31,000+ subscribers, and it is priced at $10 a month on the 12-month plan. We do not publish a channel-by-channel local lineup, and any service that promises a specific local station in a specific market should be asked to show it in your ZIP before you pay. The honest position is that we handle the wide catalog cheaply, an antenna handles local stations for nothing, and the combination costs a fraction of a single traditional bill.

1. 154,000+ live channels and 219,577+ on-demand titles
2. 2190+ countries, 31,000+ subscribers, $10 a month annually
3. 3Verify any local claim in your own market before paying

Three steps, none of them expensive. Run your ZIP through the coverage checker of any service that advertises local stations and screenshot the result. Set up an antenna and scan for available stations at the place the TV will actually sit, since a scan by the window proves nothing about the cabinet. Then start a $5 24-hour trial for the wider catalog and search the shows and events you watch weekly. Activation takes about five minutes, installs are unlimited, plans carry a 7-day money-back window and nothing auto-renews, so the whole exercise stays reversible.

1. 1Screenshot the ZIP result before paying anyone
2. 2Scan for stations where the TV sits, not by a window
3. 3$5 for 24 hours, then a 7-day money-back window on plans