There are 3 basic ways of getting television service into your home: (1) OTA (Over the Air, i.e. an antenna), (2) Cable and (3) Streaming. For our purposes we’ll talk only about streaming. Streaming requires 3 basic components: (1) a tv, (2) a box to connect the internet to the tv, and (3) one or more streaming providers. Generally a “smart” tv combines (1) and (2).

For pilot YS fiber users, streaming is the only way to get tv content – there is no cable offering. Google “steaming” and you’ll get a list of providers of streaming content. Names likes Hulu, Disney, Netflix and on and on are familiar to most of us and are often parts of a cable offering. As this is being written, late 2022, streaming is rapidly replacing traditional cable offerings.

If you Google “steaming players” you’ll get a long list of boxes that can be used to connect a tv to just about any streaming service, most of them costing less than $100. My current setup uses a Roku player connected via WiFi to my normal internet connection. The YS fiber offering should provide enough bandwidth to handle any streaming demands.

Getting local channels can be a problem with streaming. Generally the major networks can be obtained, but the local stations cannot. If you care about local news or sometimes more importantly local weather, you would need to find a streaming service that includes your local stations, or get an antenna and go OTA. Some local stations have apps that allow you to watch from a computer, tablet or smartphone.