[Robert Grant]

What you get for free in the UK with Freeview drastically surpasses what a Yankee viewer gets with an antenna (er....aerial). In some areas here, especially very rural areas, one is not even assured of seeing all the national networks.

The more populated in area in the USA is, the more channels you can expect to see. However, all of the DTV (also called OTA) channels, other than the major networks are dominated by religious broadcasters and "classic TV" channels with reruns of old series (locally, on 24.3, for example- Dr. Who, but episodes so old that one can clearly tell they were 405 line monochrome!). One exception is a subchannel network called "Bounce", which, while mostly reruns, is having new programming made for their prime time (evening) schedule. Bounce has programming targeted to the African-American audience, though is in the clear to anyone in its coverage area. I've watched several movies on Bounce myself, though I'm "not the target audience".

Sports programming is particularly scarce on free TV in the US, though we still have the World Series (baseball) and Super Bowl (Gridiron Football) in the clear. Oddly, if you want to see you local college Gridiron Football teams on TV, you'll pay out the nose for it, but a viewer in Michigan may be able to watch Idaho State vs. Utah for free.

Cable TV in the US has something of a "fiscal cliff effect", with nearly all cable-only channels demanding that cable systems carry ALL of their channels to ALL of the cable company's subscribers and charging a per-subscriber fee for ALL the customers. Right now, the Monthly bill for cable or satellite TV services is around $120 USD (£96), and keeps rising faster than wages.

One good thing about free TV in the US is that the major networks are usually in superb HD.