said by Morac:OTA may be in a position to loose it's spot if it hasn't already. Many stations have started broadcasting sub-channels. Each channel can only carry 19.39 mbps of video. Take a 1080i HD channel and break off 2 SD subchannels and you've now made an okay looking HD channel, look noticeable worse.
OTA can still be better than cable. Cable usually shoehorns 3 HD channels(sometimes only 2 if ESPN is involved) in to 6 Mhz(38.8 mbps) of bandwidth. Divide the 38.8 mbps by 3 and cable is delivering HD channels in about 13 mbps of bandwidth. OTA can still better that while also delivering 2 480i subchannels in addition to the HD channel.
