Audio Video News

New research from Dallas-based Parks Associates shows that a growing number of American are using good old-fashioned TV antennas to pull in pristine digital broadcasts over the air.

The percentage of U.S. broadband households that use TV antennas has risen steadily from 16 percent in 2015 to 20 percent near the end of 2017, according to Parks. The increase in antenna use coincides with a steady decline in pay-TV subscriptions and simultaneous increase in subscriptions to OTT (over-the-top) video streaming services.

“Increasingly, consumers are cobbling together their own bundles of content sources,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks. “Digital antennas are experiencing a resurgence as consumers consider over-the-air TV and OTT video services as alternatives to pay TV.

“The percentage of ‘never’ households [those that have never subscribed to pay-TV services] has held steady, and the percentage of households actually cutting the cord has increased between 2015 and 2017. Antennas are an affordable source for local channels to these households.”

More than 50 percent of the households that have switched services, shaved pay-TV programming bundles, or cut the cord say the service is “not worth the cost.”

Interestingly, only 46 percent of pay-TV subscribers realize they can access free programming and video-on-demand content from their current pay-TV provider and receive it through the channel guide, Sappington said.

On the flipside of using an antenna to receive free programming over the air, the Parks research shows that 17 percent of consumers who cancel their pay-TV service would have stayed with their provider if there were no monthly fees for their set-top boxes. The study also found that 20 percent of Wi-Fi households experience problems with coverage in their home.