I hope Aereo continues to win. Another company doing the same thing is: http://www.skittertv.com/ - unfortunately neither of them support my local area. Due to my house's construction/location, I can't pick up DTV signals easily and would gladly pay $10-$15/mo to get those channels instead of the minimum $30/mo that my cable company charges for basic package.
You should call the cable company back and ask for the "lifeline" package, by that specific name. It only includes the local channels, but it exists in basically every franchise area and is generally $10 or less.
I did. I called three different times and not one of the sales people for Bright House Networks here in Florida knew about it. I said it is the lowest package with just the bare minimum channels like ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS and they said "No, the lowest plan we offer is $25+tax. There is nothing called lifeline."
If the house has been previously hooked up for cable (or still is for internet) you can try hooking up anyway. A lot of them will usually have those channels come through anyway because it costs them less in filters and things to do so. However some of them still encrypt them so it's a bit of a crap-shoot as to what you'll find.
If your house is wired for cable, have you tried just connecting your TV to that? A lot of cable companies push local channels unencrypted. That's how I get my local channels.
