Despite the prevalence of digital technologies rippling through many aspects of our daily lives, an increasing percentage of Americans are embracing over-the-air (OTA) television.
While the 16 million over-the-air homes as of May 2018 paints an overarching national picture, Nielsen has taken a dive into data derived from its panel approach to TV measurement to provide deeper insights into the different types of over-the-air viewers — and where they are most likely to reside.
Findings from Nielsen’s most recent Local Watch Report show an upward trend in the adoption of digital OTA tuners.
However, that does not suggest that this use is replacing or in lieu of a MVPD-provided service. As Nielsen notes, the majority of U.S. homes still subscribe to a pay-TV service (cable or satellite). Therefore, Nielsen concludes, the shift to free broadcast TV suggests that folks are exploring alternatives. And, with a myriad of internet options available today, many homes are not mutually exclusive with their viewing options and are pairing their broadcast local news and network stations with a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service.
According to Nielsen’s TV panel, 59% of OTA homes have access to SVOD and 41% don’t.
Things get even more interesting when Nielsen factors in a third underlying segment: OTA homes that subscribe to a virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).
Consumers who supplement their OTA viewing with “skinny bundles” from vMVPD services can stream programs to their smart TVs and mobile devices. Small but growing, these consumers make up 8% of OTA homes, which comes out to about 1.3 million U.S. households.
THE TOP OTA REGION, AND CONSUMER GROUP
In looking at Nielsen data, a high concentration of OTA homes can be found in the Southwest region, averaging 19% of households in those areas.
“This makes sense, since this area is popular among Hispanics,” Nielsen states.
What, exactly, is Nielsen trying to say? The U.S. Hispanic population in the American Southwest tends to be higher than in other regions of the nation. Further, Hispanics are 48% more like to have over-the-air status than the average U.S. home.
Is this tied to economics and socioeconomic lag, compared to the total population? Or, is this a reflection of how the availability of content of interest to them could perhaps be deeper with an OTT service, or “skinny bundle,” or a simple $24 digital TV antenna purchased on Amazon.com?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Northeasterners are more likely to stick to their cable packages, with 7% of households having OTA access. This region also experienced the smallest year-over-year growth.
But, why? There are many unexplained factors. While a DMA such as Phoenix offers excellent over-the-air TV signals in nearly every populated area, the New York DMA does not. In the mid-Hudson Valley, reception of over-the-air TV signals has been a challenge since the dawn of the television era some 70 years ago; it is why cablevision was created in the first place, bringing signals from the city to such communities as Kingston.
Similar stories can be seen in other DMAs, including Hartford-Springfield; Albany-Schenectady-Troy; Boston; Providence; and Manchester, N.H., thanks to terrain. Another factor: high-rise living in Manhattan, which could make over-the-air reception in a digital world even worse than in an analog universe.
Therefore, a combination of socioeconomics and terrain are likely key reasons why the Phoenix and Albuquerque, N. Mex., DMAs, top the list for presence of OTA homes and markets like New York — which includes distant yet populous areas such as Ulster and Suffolk Counties — ranks lowest for OTA penetration.
There’s one interesting outlier: Milwaukee. The market, says Nielsen, has the highest penetration for both OTA homes with and without SVOD.
Dayton came out on top for the market most likely to pair OTA with vMVPD.
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The Growth and Evolution of OTA TV, As Nielsen Sees It
