When it comes time to decide what kind of television service you want, you have a lot of choices. You could (gasp!) get it for free by installing an old fashioned antenna on your roof and hoping for the best. You could call your local cable company and see what they have to offer. Or you can order satellite television.

Each has its advantages, of course, as well as disadvantages

That plain old fashioned antenna in some areas serves quite adequately. Of course, you have to be in an area where you are close enough to where they are broadcasting to get so much as an adequate signal. But it only costs money at the time you get the antenna installed... or you can use the little ones that attach to the television itself, if you can still find that kind. Actually, television antennas themselves aren't all that commonplace anymore in many areas.

Cable television can be quite good, offers a fair number of channels, and you can even order digital cable fairly easily these days. HDTV is another possible feature you can add on to your cable television, if you have the equipment to make it worthwhile.

Cable has some good advantages over satellite. It offers all your local channels as well as a selection of cable channels. Many homes have had cable installed already, so it's very easy to get started. You can also have it on however many televisions you like in your home, and your cable company won't charge you per television.

But it also has some disadvantages. It often costs more than satellite, depending on your area and the package ordered, of course. Plain cable television is not digitally broadcast; you typically have to pay more for that. If you order digital cable, you have to get a special box, just as you do for satellite, and you cannot record one channel while watching another without an extra digital receiver.

Satellite's advantages are the average price, the number of available channels and the digital broadcast. It is quite common for satellite television companies to give you all or most of the equipment you need for multiple televisions in your home (the exact number depends on the company and is subject to change) for free.

The disadvantages are that you may not always be able to get your local channels over satellite and that the cost increases with the number of televisions in your home.

With either cable or satellite television, you may have the option of ordering extra channels, such as HBO or Cinemax, and you can get pay per view channels as well. Some cable companies now only offer pay per view channels to their digital subscribers, however, and this increases the cost of your cable subscription even more.

There are good reasons to go with either option. There is no right or wrong answer here, just what makes the most sense with your budget and your television viewing habits.