MUMBAI:The number of Americans now relying exclusively on over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasting in their home increased to almost 46 million, up from 42 million just a year ago.
A new research by Knowledge Networks (KN) also found that the demographics of broadcast-only households skewed towards younger adults, minorities and lower-income families.
The 2011 Ownership Survey and Trend Report, part of The Home Technology Monitor research series, found that 15 per cent of all US households with TVs rely solely on over-the-air signals to watch TV programming; this compares with 14 per cent of homes reported as broadcast-only for the previous three years.
Overall, KN estimates that more than 17 million households representing 45.6 million consumers receive television exclusively through broadcast signals.
KN‘s Media practice VP, Groups account director David Tice said, "As we‘ve seen for the past few years, over-the-air households continue to make up a sizeable portion of the television viewing landscape. Our research reveals that over-the-air broadcasting remains an important distribution platform of TV programming, and that the estimated number of broadcast TV households in the US has grown."
The survey found a small but notable number of homes that have canceled pay TV service at their current home.
According to the study, four per cent of TV households, which translates to five million TV households, eliminated pay-TV service in their current home at some point in the past and now rely only on over-the-air reception.
Of these homes, most report overall cost-cutting (71%) or not enough value for cost (30%) as the reason for doing so (respondents could give more than one reason).
The survey found some minority groups are more dependent on broadcast reception than the general population, including one-fourth of Asian households and 17 per cent of African-American households.
In addition, 23 per cent of Hispanic homes are broadcast-only, a proportion that increases to 27 per cent among homes in which Spanish is the language of choice. In all, minorities make up 40 per cent of all broadcast-only homes.
Homes headed by younger adults are also more likely to access TV programming exclusively through broadcast signals. Twenty percent of homes with a head of household age 18-34 are broadcast only, compared with 15 per cent of homes in which the head of household is 35-54, or 13 per cent of homes in which the head of household is 55 years of age or older.
Lower-income households also trend towards broadcast-only television, with 23 per cent of homes with an annual income under $30,000 receiving TV signals solely over-the-air. In comparison, 11 per cent of homes with incomes greater than $30,000 rely exclusively on broadcast signals.
