I remember years ago when when we lost Blue Bloods for six weeks due to negotiation talks. We have been through this with many networks and talk about upset we were very upset. Enough was enough!!! We live in a valley on a mountain with no chance of an outside antenna working! We tried. Finally we also purchased Direct TV. On Dish Network we had everything so we pulled half our programming from Dish and put that half on Direct. Locals on both. Problem solved. We now have the best of both worlds with no fear unless one day both satellite companies negotiate the same channels at the same time. Dish lost money and Direct gained money and we are very happy with the result. I only wish everyone would do this.
Congrats on your first post ............... in 11 years!!
That's one way to handle it I do wonder how much more you end up paying. If you (meaning you or whoever) can't get OTA but have cable available they should have a starter package with only locals, including the government channels etc. I believe they are still mandated to make that available but may not advertise it and generally you have to call. At one time was called a life-line package but I think that has morphed into a low income program. Two examples;
https://www.timewarnercable.com/en/...t-is-time-warner-cables-basic-tv-service.html
https://www.xfinity.com/support/cable-tv/difference-between-limited-basic-and-expanded-basic-cable/