The number of Americans who regularly use antennas to watch television has declined over the past five years, according to a new report released by Horowitz Research on Thursday.
The data point was part of the “State of Media, Entertainment and Tech” report that focuses mainly on the adoption of subscription-based video services, though it also inquires about how consumers are watching other forms of video content, including broadcast TV.
The report claims antenna use in American homes declined from 32 percent in 2020 to 19 percent this year, a figure that is largely in line with estimates released by Nielsen last year, which put the number of antennas in American homes at nearly 18 percent.
At the same time, consumers continue to move away from pay TV services, largely due to cost considerations. The number of Americans paying for cable, satellite or a streaming cable-like product went from 81 percent in 2020 to 44 percent in 2025, Horowitz said.
That trend largely tracks with price increases over the same five-year period, with local broadcasters and national cable channel programmers charging cable and satellite companies more for their content. At the same time, more premium programming — including live sports — has migrated to network-owned streaming platforms, as well as services owned by Amazon and Netflix.
Standalone streaming services tend to be lower in price, with many introducing ad-supported tiers that save consumers even more, while offering access to live sports and news — some of which are exclusive to their platforms. At the same time, streaming cable alternatives, which were once viewed as a lower-cost way to watch premium sports and news, have skyrocketed in price as programmers start to force those services into paying similar fees that cable and satellite companies do for their channels.
Surprisingly, the number of Americans picking up antennas as one way to watch free TV seems to be lower based on the Horowitz report, despite some industry anecdotes and data that proves otherwise. Richard Schneider, the CEO of Antennas Direct, told The Desk last year that sales of his company’s antennas tend to increase during certain times of the year, including the start of the National Football League’s season in the fall and the Super Bowl in mid-winter. Last July, the company had to ship more antennas to an Amazon warehouse after experiencing a surge in sales around the start of the 2024 Olympic Games, which aired on NBC, Schneider said.
Proprietary data from Nielsen shared with some broadcast clients and viewed by The Desk shows incremental adoption of antennas over the past 12 months, though the increase is largely in major metropolitan areas like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, where the population is higher and the number of available programming options on broadcast TV is greater. Adoption is also high in rural areas, where the population is lower, but where the community may have a greater interest in local news and community-oriented sports programming available on their local TV stations.
Research from Horowitz seems to track that trend on a broader level, with the insights firm reporting antenna adoption at 9 percent in homes with an annual household of $100,000 or more. That figure rises to 26 percent for households where the annual income was $50,000 or lower.
