Research: 20% US households own TV antenna
December 8, 2023
Findings from technology research firm Parks Associates’ report, ATSC 3.0: Impact and Opportunity for Video Services, reveal that 20 per cent of US Internet households own a television antenna and 12 per cent don’t have an antenna but plan to purchase one in the next six months.
“The percentage of antenna owners has remained steady over the last few years, creating a stable audience for broadcasters at a time when they are losing revenues from lost retransmission fees as consumers abandon pay-TV for streaming services,” said Alan Bullock, Sr. Contributing Analyst, Parks Associates. “ATSC 3.0 has the potential to pump new life into broadcast TV.”
According to Parks Associates research, TV antenna owners report watching about 6.4 hours of over-the-air (OTA) programming per week, second only to subscription-based video-on-demand streaming (7.6 hours per week). Among nearly 30 per cent of antenna owners, OTA is the preferred method of watching live news, while approximately 20 per cent prefer OTA to watch live sports and TV shows and movies. The ATSC 3.0 standard could improve the experiences for these viewers, and attract new OTA viewers, by enabling higher quality video, enhanced audio, and interactive capabilities.