"Dave Platt"
(PeteCresswell)

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.


** Megawatt TV stations must be very rare.

A ( digital ) TV transmitter with a few thousand watts and a well sited high
gain antenna covers a city of 5 to 10 million people and beyond. The
electricity bill is trivial.

OTOH - the cost of installing and maintaining a cable TV network serving 5
million people is enormous.

Broadcasting is unique and cannot be economically replaced by cable or
satellite.



.... Phil