There are a lot of people that are cutting the cord to save money on their cable television bill and manufacturers are starting to take notice in an important way.
Previously if you wanted to watch Antenna TV and also make use of the Internet for shows you can’t get or specialty networks like HBO you had to use separate inputs on your television and you had to go through a number of menus just to change from one to the other.
Sling TV and others that offer Internet Cable Type subscription packages are working with companies to combine both sources.
Now you might say why would they want you to use your local stations off of your antenna vs selling you access to these channels?
The primary reason is that by allowing you to harvest your locals off of antenna they are not bound to contracts that increase your cost. In areas where locals are available over cable you always pay a premium and in addition there have been a number of contract negotiations that have worked out bad such as missing major sports games because the network causes a blackout over contract talks.
At this time Sling is not yet shipping their new devices that mix the stations on your tv guide but they are up for order and they are shipping a device right now that doesn’t have an antenna hookup. called the AirTV but be careful if you order now and wait for the Antenna hookup.
Other companies are doing the same and you can bet that within a year or two that even the generic Android Boxes that you buy off the internet will have an Antenna hookup.
Other options right now still require that you make use of a SiliconDust network tuner or set up a PC with a tuner card and run a server to feed your televisions. Many people do this because the DVR options are much better. Tivo also has limited options but it is not a full solution at this time.
As for other proprietary devices like the Roku we expect that they will follow quickly or lose the market but unfortunately Roku is not an android device it is based on Linux and this means a large rewright of their software will be required along with new hardware so it will be much harder for them to bring something to market.
At this point you still will need to use 2 methods of switching channels but the future is bright and we can expect the next couple years to bring not only android boxes with antenna hookups but also the new ATSC3 standard which means 4k video over antenna that is linked to an internet connection for added features.
Final Note
Personally I have found it is often best to be late to the game on new devices like this unless you are willing to be a tester for the company. Sometimes that can work out in your favor when they offer incentives such as the DirecTVnow Rollout where they gave you 100 stations for the price of their 60 channel small package.. However expect headaches.