Traditional Aerial vs Streaming Services vs Sky

bloke91

Hi all,

Looking for advice and thoughts please?

My house has a aerial extender that has feeds into multiple bedrooms.

I use sky and if I choose to cancel Sky one day, suspect would revert to combination of streaming services over the internet and perhaps Freeview or Freesat.

Is there any value in keeping old school aerial feeds into bedrooms, or should I just rip them out?

Thanks in advance your thoughts.

Rodders53

I use Freeview in the various rooms of my house plus their smart streaming bits if needed.  So I'd find it useful if I was buying your home.

ALL TVs still come with terrestrial TV tuners currently.  Not all have satellite tuners and fewer still freesat.  So the aerial can be used by sets in such rooms.

If it works why rip it out?

Only YOU know your likely future use of the system, though and if you want to remove it all then do so.

In the foreseeable future it's likely that both satellite and terrestrial broadcasts will cease and everything will be streamed.

PHK

This is a very difficult question to answer. We are in a transition period where the amount of TV being watched is dropping and channels are closing. 

There are some generalities or stereotypes. 

If you are older and watch a lot of TV then you probably need Freeview or Sky in every room because you'll watch TV a lot. But even here the traditional TV channels are being replaced by streaming or internet channels. 

If you are a young person you probably don't need a TV at all as most viewings is on small screens. 

If you're in between then it's difficult. Ofcom research show that most families have a TV in the main room and possibly one in a kids room. But you still have people who have a TV in every room and there are families with no TV. 

From a technology point of view there are just starting to be TVs that either take a channel over the air or by internet if it's not available. I think these will likely become more common. 

So perhaps leave things as they are for the moment (assuming it works) 

matelodave

What benefit or value would there be in ripping them out.

If you don't use them then so what. If you might want to use them in the future then there's a benefit in keeping them.

We've got phone sockets in a couple of rooms that have never been used by us since we moved in 14 years ago - we've got wireless DECT phones. The effort of pulling them out, filling the holes and redecorating is a lot greater than just leaving them. They are easy to paint round when we redecorate.