Nielsen: Number of Over-The-Air TV Homes Increasing

According to a new Local Watch Report from Nielsen, there were 16 million homes it classifies as getting its TV over the air, rather than from a traditional cable, satellite or telco pay-TV provider. That’s up 48% over the past eight years.

But Nielsen says what’s going on in those over-the-air homes is changing. Nielsen breaks down those home into those with no subscription VOD services, or “No VOD” and those with SVOD, or “Plus SVOD.”

A new sub-segment of the Plus SVOD group is emerging, according to Nielsen, and those are the 1.3 million homes that as of May 2018 had a virtual MVPD like Sling TV, DirecTV Now or YouTube TV.

Broadcasting&Cable reports the share of over-the-air homes varied greatly from market to market. Among the markets with the most OTA homes were Milwaukee at 28.7%, Albuquerque with 25.1%, Phoenix with 24.9%, Dayton with 24.4%, Dallas with 23.1%, Minneapolis with 22.9, and St. Louis with 20.6%

The fewest OTA homes were in Boston and West Palm Beach at 4.9%, New York at 6.0%, Hartford at 6.2% and Washington, D.C. at 6.6%.