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20% of Broadband Homes Now Get TV Via Antenna

While many of our regulars have realized the benefits of an over the air antenna for years, it's a phenomenon that more recently has caught on among Millennials and younger broadband subscribers looking to avoid over-priced and bloated cable TV bundles. And according to a new study by Parks Associates, one in five US broadband households now use an antenna as their primary mode of consuming television. That's up from 16% back in 2015, and the phenomenon shows no indication of slowing down.

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Again, the firm's latest study found that soaring prices is the predominant reason for users that cut the cord, whether they switch to antennas or streaming alternatives like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, or Amazon.

According to the firm's study, 50% of the households that have switched, shaved, or cut the cord say that traditional pay TV service is "not worth the cost."

"Increasingly, consumers are cobbling together their own bundles of content sources. Digital antennas are experiencing a resurgence as consumers consider over-the-air TV and OTT video services as alternatives to pay TV," Parks said of its latest study.

"The percentage of 'Never' households (households 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," notes the firm. "Antennas are an affordable source for local channels to these households."

Some other interesting findings from the report:

• 63% of subscribers who cannot currently restart programs from the beginning find that feature to be appealing

• 17% 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

• Average fees for standalone broadband have increased nearly 25% since 2010

• 20% of Wi-Fi households experience problems with coverage in their home

The full report can be found here hidden behind a paywall.

Most recommended from 84 comments


ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

8 recommendations

ham3843

Member

Rural area here I use OTA

I cut the cord in 2011 and never looked back.

We live about 50+ miles from most of our local stations with a couple being 80 miles away.
I can't get the ABC affiliate and they refuse to install a translator in our area. I also can't get our local PBS station either and I do find a number of good quality programs on PBS.

However I still get 13 channels and a few are actually good quality sub channels. This is just with
a pair of rabbit ears inside on the TV itself.

There are a few programs I might be interested in on paid service but not worth the cost in the end when 90%+ of the content on paid TV is complete garbage with much of it being down right
obnoxious and offensive low quality carp. !
chrismeyer
join:2002-10-13
Manchester Township, NJ

7 recommendations

chrismeyer

Member

Going OTA was the best decision

Me and my wife decided we were done paying ever increasing directv bills. So we mounted a channel master extreemtena 80 on our roof and picked up four of the channel master DVR+s and there dual gain preamp and eight way distribution amp and it's been great we get all the major networks cbs, abc, nbc, fox, pbs, PBS kids and a bunch more between the Philly and NYC markets. And since our DVR+s have the sling app built it we have their service as well. We're saving over 100 bucks a month and we have every channel we want and having the PBS kids and all the kids channels on sling is great for a three year old son. It's been one of the best decisions we've made.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

7 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

jason need to add ota to hardware

»/hardware

jason, you need to add some way dslr members can display they are ota users.

it may not be broadband, but in today's market it's a relevant badge of honor

#20PERCWITHOTA

Donut
join:2005-06-27
Romulus, MI
·Comcast XFINITY
Netgear CM1000
Synology RT2600ac

6 recommendations

Donut

Member

OTA works for me

I live like 2 miles from Detroit Metro Airport, I get channels from Detroit, Southfeild and Ann Arbor. In all maybe 30 - 40 channels. Many are shopping and religious, but I found a few gems. Mostly ION and H&I. The rest of my content I stream. Most of it is from Youtube which is free.
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

6 recommendations

b10010011

Member

Must be nice for city dwellers

The great digital TV transition and the "digital cliff" made it impossible for me to receive any network TV stations OTA.

All I can get OTA is one local "Joe-TV" rerun robostation along with its foreign language and shopping subchannels and a couple Canadien stations.

Back in the analog days I could receive 3 out of the 4 network stations from Seattle.