01-15-2016, 11:46 AM
What is old is new again.
I have a thought on the increase of people cutting the cord and how the digital broadcast age is now helping people cutting the cord along with the internet.
The new digital broadcasting age is giving new life to OTA stations. It has only been 6 years since full-power stations have started broadcasting in a digital signal and roughly 2 to 3 years that the smaller stations have converted over. I'm in my upper 40's and remember what the analog signal looks like and for most people then, cable provided a clean picture especially for us folks that lived out in the translator land. (I'm using my own mindset here, but I'm sure I'm not the only one). I've seen the commercials over the years from antenna makers and how getting a digital signal is better, but I didn't grasp that the thought of how much better can it be and the biggest thing to me is why would I do that for only 4 or 6 channels.
What I discovered and I think many people are discovering is that there are more channels now than ever OTA only and that is due to the change to digital broadcasting and the ability for 1 station to now broadcast 2 to 6 channels instead of only 1 channel per station. This is quite a big deal and why I think OTA stations will be making a comeback (maybe not a huge but a significant).
A single TV station can now be more profitable by having more content to show and have more space for advertisers with the ability to have sub-channels and having the station more profitable. We are seeing an increase in the number of channels that are signing up with OTA stations for their sub channel space. Not to long ago there was no MeTV, Retro TV, Antenna TV (combination of classic shows from the 50's to the 90's) or GetTV (classic movies similar to TMC)...etc. Now there are more channels being created and they are finding out that there is an audience out there.
Now the American Sports Networks is going as a full 24hr channel and will grow more to stations. Even if they are on a sub-channel does it really matter to the straight OTA viewers? No. And people flipping channels with come across it. What is going to make ASN different from other attempts is that they actually have college football and basketball games to show. They are also, getting into other sports to show and ballroom dancing competitions for the people who like that event. We'll need to keep out eye out on them and they seem to have the full support of their parent company Sinclair. There are plenty of A-10, CAA and CUSA games they show and maybe now get some MAC games from the sublicense of ESPN. With those conferences being broadcasted, many MAC and CUSA fans don't need EPSN anymore to see the game they want to watch (especially when they are put on the EPSN U or News channel). Then there is always the Big 3 or 4 networks that have the Big Conference games anyway OTA.
May 2015 estimates by Nielson has 12.3 million household that have OTA only and that is a 1 million home increase from 2014. That number is continuing to rise.
OTA will never be back like it was before the advent of cable, but it can and look like its taking back a percentage that is significant enough to keep them alive and more prosperous than the recent end of the analog age 6 years ago when they could only broadcast 1 single channel.
I have a thought on the increase of people cutting the cord and how the digital broadcast age is now helping people cutting the cord along with the internet.
The new digital broadcasting age is giving new life to OTA stations. It has only been 6 years since full-power stations have started broadcasting in a digital signal and roughly 2 to 3 years that the smaller stations have converted over. I'm in my upper 40's and remember what the analog signal looks like and for most people then, cable provided a clean picture especially for us folks that lived out in the translator land. (I'm using my own mindset here, but I'm sure I'm not the only one). I've seen the commercials over the years from antenna makers and how getting a digital signal is better, but I didn't grasp that the thought of how much better can it be and the biggest thing to me is why would I do that for only 4 or 6 channels.
What I discovered and I think many people are discovering is that there are more channels now than ever OTA only and that is due to the change to digital broadcasting and the ability for 1 station to now broadcast 2 to 6 channels instead of only 1 channel per station. This is quite a big deal and why I think OTA stations will be making a comeback (maybe not a huge but a significant).
A single TV station can now be more profitable by having more content to show and have more space for advertisers with the ability to have sub-channels and having the station more profitable. We are seeing an increase in the number of channels that are signing up with OTA stations for their sub channel space. Not to long ago there was no MeTV, Retro TV, Antenna TV (combination of classic shows from the 50's to the 90's) or GetTV (classic movies similar to TMC)...etc. Now there are more channels being created and they are finding out that there is an audience out there.
Now the American Sports Networks is going as a full 24hr channel and will grow more to stations. Even if they are on a sub-channel does it really matter to the straight OTA viewers? No. And people flipping channels with come across it. What is going to make ASN different from other attempts is that they actually have college football and basketball games to show. They are also, getting into other sports to show and ballroom dancing competitions for the people who like that event. We'll need to keep out eye out on them and they seem to have the full support of their parent company Sinclair. There are plenty of A-10, CAA and CUSA games they show and maybe now get some MAC games from the sublicense of ESPN. With those conferences being broadcasted, many MAC and CUSA fans don't need EPSN anymore to see the game they want to watch (especially when they are put on the EPSN U or News channel). Then there is always the Big 3 or 4 networks that have the Big Conference games anyway OTA.
May 2015 estimates by Nielson has 12.3 million household that have OTA only and that is a 1 million home increase from 2014. That number is continuing to rise.
OTA will never be back like it was before the advent of cable, but it can and look like its taking back a percentage that is significant enough to keep them alive and more prosperous than the recent end of the analog age 6 years ago when they could only broadcast 1 single channel.