• by Wayne Friedman , November 14, 2019

Almost a third of adult TV viewers now own a digital antenna, according to a new study -- and ownership is growing.

Horowitz Research says 44% of antenna users purchased their first antenna within the past three years. The media research company adds that 24% actively use an antenna to get TV content on at least one of their TV sets.

Digital antenna ownership is growing among young TV viewers in particular. Half of antenna users today are under 50, while 24% are in the 18-34 demographic.

Many of the antenna TV homes are also active in using broadband video streaming services. Almost 90% of antenna users stream content, compared to 75% of consumers streaming content who don’t own antennas.

Almost three-quarters of antenna owners (73%) use at least one of the biggest three on-demand premium video services -- Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu. This compares with 65% among non-antenna users.

Among other results, nearly 40% of antenna users stream but do not subscribe to a traditional pay TV service -- cable, satellite or telco -- and 60% of antenna users still have a traditional pay TV service. Another 28% say they purchased an antenna to have the option to cancel their cable/satellite service.

The survey was conducted in September 2019 in English and Spanish among 1,541 TV content viewers.