The NFL season opened last week with a stealth bomber soaring over the Kansas City Chiefs’ stadium while Coco Jones belted out The Star-Spangled Banner. There’s nothing better and more American.What made it even more awesome was that I was watching on TV for free, and I didn’t have to endure any ads.Here’s my setup: I have a digital TV antenna that’s hooked up to an old TiVo DVR, which I then plug into a standard flat-screen TV.A TV antenna is a cheap and simple way to get broadcast channels without paying for a cable, satellite, or streaming subscriptions. You can buy a solid antenna for as low as $20 and get free access to stations including ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. These are the ones that offer most of the live NFL action, along with many other live sports. I watched the Olympics this summer with my family for free this way.You can buy old TiVo DVR machines on eBay and elsewhere online. This lets me record 100s of hours of live sports and other great content. For big games, I start playing the recordings about one-third of the way though (while carefully avoiding spoilers on social media). Then, when ads appear, I just forward through them all. By the time the game is almost over, I’m up with the live action.I’m not the only one who’s caught on to this incredible deal. While cord-cutting is crushing the cable and satellite industries, OTA TV viewing is holding on strong.So strong, in fact, that CivicScience, a leading research and survey company, started tracking OTA TV antenna usage and demographics a few years ago.Their most surprising finding is that younger viewers are heavier users of digital TV antennas. (I thought young people would be more likely to own a pet armadillo than an old-school antenna. I was wrong).CivicScience research has also found that this OTA TV audience is more tech-savvy. That’s another counter-intuitive datapoint, given how old this basic TV broadcasting technology is.
“It’s time to dispel the conventional notion of antenna-based TV viewers as Luddite dinosaurs,” John Dick, CEO and founder of CivicScience, told me. “These new OTA users are not only disproportionately younger, but much more tech savvy across all age groups. It’s a high-value audience that will only grow as people become more aware of the technology and its cost benefits.”
A CivicScience chart showing information about digital TV antenna owners
CivicScience
When you take a step back and consider what’s been happening in recent years, it’s actually not that surprising that younger, savvy viewers are tuning in to free OTA TV broadcasts.Inflation has run rampant in recent years. Streaming services that were once cheap are now pretty expensive. Netflix has basically doubled in price over the years.At least you didn’t have to watch ads. Until, that is, streaming services added advertising. Now you pay to watch ads.YouTube TV, a major live TV streaming service, cost $35 a month when it launched in 2017. Now it’s more than $70 a month. How many young people can afford that? Very few.
