Needs broadband is ridiculous in this day and age.
For most people, yes. But for the frugal or the very income-limited, there is a huge role for over the air reception. Hopefully with a PVR, as the benefits of time-shifting and advert avoidance are huge.
>my entire setup - with all those boxes and necessary cabling - doesn't come to
>half what that guy paid for his TV. Probably not even a quarter. And I've
> had the same setup for nearly 10 years now,
Did you add the cost of your network into the above computation?