I have worked in the tv world for years now and I have not paid a "subscription" for about 2 years. I use a roku box as my primary "source" for tv. I can watch all televised OSU games live for free but it takes leaning on friends and family to do so.
so go get your Roku box, plug it into your tv using hdmi. download any tv channel you can think of; history, discovery, espn, fox, cnn, you name it its most likely have an app. lets say you download fox sports and you click on it to open the app, guess what? There is just not that much "programming" on it that is free, if any at all. I call my one of my family or friends and say hey you have such and such cable company right? give me your username and password, I follow the instructions and boom, im watching live tv. yes you are using your friends and family but they are already paying for it and most of them feel like if I can get it as well then its more bang for the buck, sometimes a case of beer will suffice as well. It also doesn't cost them a penny to let you do this.
the idea of watching live tv for free is still kinda a myth. you can find stuff online from a European website like espn.eu but its not very good. Also keep in mind that any kind of antenna will work for your local channels, again ANY kind of antenna. you don't need a new "digital" antenna to get hd channels. our old rabbit ears work just fine as long as the signal is strong enough to receive the station signal, of course and most of them are.
I have my antenna hooked up for my locals (live tv and weather) and then my roku for anything else. my kids have Disney channel, cartoon network and I have channels like history, discovery, fox channels, fx, a&e, just about everything. the other thing I do is subscribe to Netflix and Hulu plus, those 2 together cost me about 15 bucks or so. then I will tell a buddy hey you can have my Netflix id and I want your cable id. now he gets free Netflix and I get free channels.
I also use what's called a chromecast. google it and find out if your mobile device will work with it, but the idea is that you can "mirror" whatever you are seeing on your phone will be displayed onto your tv. so I have aps like "popcorntime" and "showbox" on my phone. I can then download or stream whatever shows and movies that are available to my phone, activate my chromecast and then watch it right on my tv.
with all this being said (im sure its clear as mud), all of this takes a good wifi connection. I would suggest at least 10mps but that would be the least I would ever go.
any more questions feel free to ask, always happy to help a fellow poke out. I am the install coordinator for a major retailer in the KC metro area so any issues or questions you might have when it relates to tv or audio I can most likely answer for ya.