A report by Parks Associates says 20% of US internet households own a television antenna and 12%, who don’t have an antenna but plan to purchase one in the next six months.
The analysis comes as the upgraded terrestrial platform ATSC 3.0, which includes internet delivered services begins its rollout.
“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% of antenna owners, OTA is the preferred method of watching live news, while approximately 20% 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.
ATSC 3.0 is built on IP architecture to deliver the next generation of broadcast technology. The standard, labeled as NEXTGEN TV to consumers, allows more revenue-generating advertising opportunities, enables new interactive ads with more precise targeting, and offers new, cost-effective ways to securely distribute data to many recipients.