The Cheapest Way to Improve Your Streaming? A $35 Digital Antenna

Learn from the wisdom of the ancients and put an antenna on your TV.

A one-time purchase of a digital antenna is by far the cheapest way to watch local sports, as well as broadcasters like CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, and The CW. If you’re paying $85 each month for YouTube TV, or have been scared off from that price, a modern model like the Channel Master FLATenna is well worth $35. But that’s only part of the antenna’s charm.

Buy Channel Master FLATenna

98% of Americans are getting many more channels than the above from a diginet carried on the subchannels of the bigger networks: Spanish-language packages, MeTV, Ion, Court TV, the opportunistic Antenna TV, and more. And pretty much everyone near a good-sized city or college town will gain access to the charmingly weird world of small-time broadcasters.

I use a Channel Master FLATenna because it has great range, is durably made, and is super easy to install. But there are plenty of other options out there, and as long as the TV is in a signal-friendly room, most are fine. Either way, you’re getting a sleek piece of modern technology; the age of static lines and wiggling rabbit ears is over.