In the television business all the buzz today is around OTT and streaming, but one major station group has decided to bring old technology to the forefront in a bid to increase awareness of free over-the-air TV. 

EW Scripps has launched TheFreeTVProject.org, a website that promotes antenna TV, providing tips and information on what are the best types of TV antennas, available programming and even a chatbot. 

On a page titled “An antenna is the key to Free TV!” visitors can enter their zip code to find available free over the air channels in their area, (CTA has offered a similar service that helps consumers pick the best type of antenna on antennaweb.org for years).

Based in Cincinnati, Scripps owns 61 TV stations and has been active in the rollout of ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV), which the website also promotes. It also has a robust “diginet” (DTV auxiliary channels) portfolio, as well as its “Newsy”  24 hour news channel. The station group is spending $20 million on its campaign which also includes 30 second spots on its O&O as well as promotions on social media and streaming services. 

Although many station groups are reluctant to promote free over-the-air TV because of the lucrative retrans fees they receive from pay-TV, Scripps President Adam Symson thinks that the current TV environment, with the increasing rate of cord-cutting is putting consumers in charge and that broadcasters need to keep customers informed of their choices. 

“Many companies are concerned about talking about broadcast too much for fear of it negatively impacting the pay TV eco-system,” Symson was quoted in the Los Angeles Times. “But I believe the consumer is in control at this point and what we have to do is insure the relevance of our product and our reach on into the future.”

Los Angeles Times has the rest of the story. 

RAYMOND, Maine—Dielectric has begun offering a TV antenna performance validation service that relies on data collected by a drone operating within a tower structure shield that is compared to a computer-derived prediction of antenna performance at a given height to confirm the antenna’s far-field elevation pattern and azimuth pattern. 

The service addresses a problem stemming from the length of time it takes for the Federal Aviation Administration to grant a waiver to allow drone operators to fly their aircraft at elevation several thousand feet from the antenna. FAA waiver applications can be stalled for up to 18 months, the company said. 

“FAA rules place several restrictions on flying drones for commercial use. There is a 400-feet altitude restriction on commercial drone flights, unless the operator can fly the drone within a 400-foot radius around a structure, and does not fly higher than 400 feet above the top of that structure,” said Dielectric Vice President of Engineering John Schadler.

“Unfortunately, waivers for these rules take many months to process, and may never be granted due to other restrictions. Our technique solves the problem of getting a waiver beyond the FAA shield. That means no need to create flight plans and safety simulations, among other requirements that lengthen the approval process,” he said.

The technique devised by Dielectric has an added advantage since far-field measurements are subject to signal reflections, multipath and interference, as are the more complicated ground-vehicle measurements, the company said.

Before a drone is deployed, Dielectric engineers construct a full virtual model of the entire antenna, including tower support structure, based on final antenna and tower drawings.

Using the company’s high-frequency modeling software with the virtual model produces a detailed prediction of azimuth and elevation data at a given distance from the tower—at or within the 400-foot FAA limit. That allows a comparison of the virtual model with the actual near-field measurement, which is, in fact, an unfocused representation of what the radiation characteristics look like in the far-field, Dielectric said.

After the drone collects data during its flight, Dielectric engineers plot the data over the virtual model. Once compared and confirmed, a report is provided to the end customer, which is typically a TV station engineer or a consultant representing the broadcaster, the company said.

Before offering the service, Dielectric verified the results of its comparison technique by conducting far-field drone measurements, said Nicole Starrett, an electrical engineer at the company.

“The added benefit is that the antenna characteristics can be quickly transformed to any distance, near or far, for comparison,” said Starrett.

Starret will present “Near Field Drone Measurements of Broadcast Antennas,” Oct. 15 at 10:45 a.m. CDT during the Wisconsin Broadcasters Fall virtual event and at the Radio Club of America Technical Symposium on Nov. 20.

More information is available on the Dielectric website.

ADDISON, Texas—TV antennas are making a comeback, as Parks Associates reports that the number of U.S. broadband homes that had used an antenna to watch TV in 2019 was at 25%; up from 18% in 2018. 

This finding came from Parks’ “360 Deep Dive: Today’s Broadcast TV,” and was conducted in the third quarter of 2019.

As consumers have multiple options to determine what content is most important to them, Parks finds that local broadcast news and programming ranks high. Consumers are also looking to cut expenses on content, which could lead toward a further increase in the use of antennas, Parks claims; Parks found that nearly half of TV antennas users do not subscribe to any pay-TV service.

The impact of the coronavirus could also cause a rise in antenna usage.

“Penetration of broadcast TV antennas increased markedly in 2019,” said Steve Nason, director of research for Parks Associates. “Thirty percent of U.S. broadband household report owning a TV antenna, as we expect upward trends both in ownership and usage to continue, especially as we face this public health crisis keeping people at home.”

Parks Associates has also announced that it plans to launch multiple surveys in April 2020 to help quantify how the coronavirus is impacting consumer behavior.

For more information, visit www.parksassociates.com.  

The number of households receiving their television via over the air antenna now represents 14 percent of all U.S. television households, nearly double what it was eight years ago, according to a new report from Nielsen.

With the television industry being upended by the emergence of multiple streaming options, the result has been declining pay-TV subscriptions and the increasing use of alternate methods of distribution, including the old-fashioned TV antenna.

“As of May 2018, more than 14% of all TV households—or 16 million homes—have OTA status, and that number is on the rise,” said Justin Laporte, vice president of Local Insights for Nielsen, in its latest “Local Watch Report.” “As consumers look for more on-demand and cost-effective options, there has been a resurgence in this type of television household.”

In its report, which analyzes the evolving habits of viewers, Nielsen divided these OTA households into two categories: “Plus SVOD,” those households that supplement their viewing options with streaming services such as Hulu (not Hulu Live), Amazon Prime and Netflix; and “No SVOD,” households that get their television strictly via antenna.

There are distinct differences in the demographics and behavior of the two types of households, according to Nielsen.

“The ‘No SVOD” homes tend to be older, more diverse and have a smaller median income, compared to the “Plus SVOD” segment, which skews younger, more affluent and more device-connected,” Laporte said said. “We see different media behavior with Plus SVOD homes consuming less traditional media and spending more time on personal devices. In an average day, the No SVOD homes have more viewing to broadcast stations, at almost five hours, than all of the TV usage combined in Plus SVOD homes.”

A third, but smaller and growing category—part of the “Plus SVOD” group—consists of households that get their programming via streaming services such as DirecTV Now, Youtube TV, Sling TV and others. These “virtual multichannel video programming distributors,” (vMVPD) make up 1.3 million of the Plus SVOD households, according to Nielsen.

“Sharing a similar profile to the Plus SVOD group as a whole, these consumers have a higher median income and access to more devices,” Laporte said. “They also have access to individual cable networks and spend an almost equal amount of time watching broadcast and cable sources.”

Here is the breakdown:

No SVOD: This group represents 6 percent of total U.S. homes, comprising 6.6 million homes in the U.S. This demographic skews older, with over half households of median income of less than 30K. They are also less likely to own mobile devices such as smartphones, streaming devices or tablets.

Plus SVOD: There are 9.4 million homes, representing 8 percent of total U.S. homes that make up this segment. The median viewer age is 36 and the households have a higher average income and more “well connected” with more access to mobile and streaming devices.

Geographically, Milwaukee has the largest percentage of “No SVOD” households: (11.1%) and Plus SVOD households (no vMVPD): (16%), while Dayton, Ohio has the largest percentage of “Plus SVOD (with vMVPD) households, representing 2.7% of all U.S. households.

Regardless of what Nielsen labels them, they are all considered “cord cutters” or “cord nevers” by the industry.