http://fortune.com/2019/01/15/over-the-air-tv-cord-cutting-nielsen/
By AARON PRESSMAN 12:49 PM EST
About one in seven American households is watching old-fashioned, over-the-air
television broadcasts, an increasingly appealing choice for former cable
customers who have “cut the cord” but still want to catch up with their local
news and network stations.
The new data from market research firm Nielsen shows that over-the-air viewing
increased to 14% of all homes last year from 9% in 2010. At the same time, the
percentage of households subscribing to cable or satellite TV peaked at 88% in
2010 and has since sunk to 79%, according to surveys by the Leichtman Research
Group. Catching free over-the-air broadcasts simply by adding an antenna that
cost $50 or less likely appeals to many cord cutters who dropped cable TV
because it was too expensive.
But there are two distinct groups watching broadcast TV, Nielsen said. About
40% of over-the-air viewing households watch no other video services from the
internet. These households skew older, with a median age of 55, and are less
likely to own smartphones and tablets than the average house. Only 27% have
children in their home and only 20% have an internet connection and devices
capable of watching online video services.
The other 60% or so of over-the-air viewing households also subscribe to online
video services like Netflix and Hulu. They have a median age of just 36 and own
more connected devices. And 52% have children and 86% have online video
accessibility at home. The entertainment industry is rushing to create more
options for these viewers, with Apple (AAPL, +2.03%), Disney (DIS, -0.62%), and
others expected to debut their own streaming services this year.
The two viewing groups also differ by how much over-the-air TV they watch. Not
surprisingly, the homes without online video alternatives watch almost five
hours of broadcast TV per day on average, Nielsen said. The homes that also
have online video services, by contrast, watch only about one and one-half
hours of broadcast TV per day.
Within the group that watches online video, a small but growing number of
households don’t watch over-the-air TV, but instead catch their local channels
online via services like Google’s (GOOGL, +3.29%) YouTube TV or AT&T’s (T,
-0.10%) DirecTV Now. So far only about 1% of Americans, or 1.3 million
households, watch that way as of May, 2018, Nielsen said.