Dave Platt wrote:

In article ,
(PeteCresswell) wrote:

Sounds like there is a significant cost diff between OTA and cable.

The electric bill for running the antenna farm?

Hundreds of kilowatts, up to megawatts of power output. I'm sure it
adds up. And, since it's public spectrum, they're paying a
significant license fee every year to the Feds for the right to use
the frequency exclusively within their broadcast area.


You are ignoring the antenna gain. One station I worked at fed 130
KW to the antenna for a 5 MW EIRP. The backup generator was a 500 KW
Kohler diesel that was able to power the entire transmitter site,
including the cooling system & A/C.