U.S. OTA Homes Up 48% in 8 Years to 16M: Nielsen

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The percentage of U.S. homes with receiving local broadcast channels through over-the-air antennas has increased nearly 50% over the past eight years to around 16 million, according to Nielsen.

The research company found that nearly 14% of U.S. homes are watching TV over the air.

Nielsen found that OTA users broke down into roughly two groups.

One has a median age of around 55 and doesn’t compliment OTA programming with streaming services. OTA is primarily a cost-savings tool for these nearly 6.6. million homes.

The other 9.4 million homes does compliment OTA with subscription streamings services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. This group’s median household age is 36. The group also tends to be more affluent.

Notably, the older group tends to watch six hours of television a day, on average—that’s two full hours more than the younger group, which has a more diverse selection of programming services. 

Daniel Frankel
Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!