A press release issued by Antennas Direct this week indicated that business is better than ever for the online retailer, thanks to the perfect storm of last year’s digital TV transition and continued recessionary economics in the United States. In the announcement, Antennas Direct President Richard Schneider tuned into television viewing trends that mirror those seen by Skitter in our work with TV service providers. We just see a somewhat bigger picture. In the press release, Antennas Direct asserts that:
- Current economic conditions are causing viewers to question the cost and value of cable and satellite TV. The elimination of paid TV from the household budget leads to significant cost savings.
- With over-the top Internet TV, video-on-demand and other Web video content readily available, many consumers are switching to over-the-air television for live broadcast TV and then supplement that with entertainment programming available online–content that traditionally was only available on cable and satellite TV services.
- According to the FCC, only 10 percent of American households rely solely on over-the-air TV signals. What these numbers don’t show are the reality that almost half of households with an antenna rely on it to supplement pay TV services, some of whom don’t offer local broadcast channels, or charge extra for them.
Skitter sees the same realities in TV service choices, but would point out two factors that take over-the-air TV viewing out of the picture for many Americans. First, with the digital transition, changes in transmission power and frequencies used for broadcasting results in TV screens going blank for many people– especially in rural markets. For Tier 2 and Tier 3 telecom service providers, offering TV services that include local off-air channels can be an important community service–making local news, information and programming available to customers too far from broadcast TV towers to tune into some DTV signals.
What’s more, rural providers can offer more choices than their cable competitors typically do. Many rural communities are situated in between two or more nearby TV markets. Within each community, and even within individual families in a community, tradition may dictate a preference for TV stations from one nearby city over another. Telco’s can choose to offer access to off-air TV stations from multiple designated market areas (DMAs), giving consumers in their area more choice and flexibility–especially in areas where DTV broadcast signals are too weak to watch over-the-air.
Meanwhile, there’s one more trend that TV antennas alone cannot address, and that is the growing consumer demand for Internet-connected TV. It’s the convergence factor. In fact, an article published by eMarketer in December 2009 cited research showing that 65 percent of all U.S. Internet users would like to connect their TV to the Internet.
That’s where Skitter comes in. With the Skitter.TV platform, TV service providers can capture off-air signals and encode them for delivery in a converged media platform that combines live off-air (and satellite network) television in a single media player. With Skitter.TV-powered entertainment services, providers can meet not only the broader trends in media consumption, but can do so with a highly localized offering tuned to hyper-local cultural and demographic realities. It’s a distinct competitive advantage, especially when competing with larger national providers.
In the final analysis, we don’t mean begrudge Antennas Direct their success. In this economy, the more successful American businesses, the better. We simply see more to the story, and offer a broader solution that can bring more success to another type of American business: the independent telephone company or co-op. With Skitter.TV, service providers have an opportunity to brighten their own futures with greater customer loyalty, growing ARPU and a more competitive offering. Besides, Skitter.TV installations usually involve an antenna installation at the head end. In the end, everybody wins.
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