While many in the TV business are investing billions in subscription streaming services, big broadcasters are focusing on free over-the-air digital channels.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has been investing in its digital channels — Comet TV, Charge and TBD — and is seeing a healthy increase in advertising revenue since getting ratings from Nielsen and upgrading their programming. In June, for example, Charge is adding CSI: Miami to its schedule.

“What we’ve tried to do with these networks is level up the programming to make them general-market worthy,” Scott Ehrlich, Sinclair senior VP, growth networks and content, said.

Sinclair is calling its channels The Stack in their first-ever upfront presentations. The 70 one-on-one meetings are aimed at getting media buyers to understand that digital channels offer familiar programming and a growing number of consumers are looking for free entertainment.

“Cord-cutting isn’t necessarily our goal as a company, but over-the-air is a quickly growing segment of the audience,” Ehrlich said, noting that Sinclair generates significant revenue in retransmission consent for its stations and subscriber fees for its regional sports networks. 

“There’s a technology change coming that we’re highly invested in as a company that is certainly going to enhance the over-the-air experience,” he added, referring to NextGen TV.

Sinclair and other stations have started converting stations from the current broadcast format, ATSC, to the NextGen ATSC 3.0 standard. Sinclair expects half the country to be covered by ATSC 3.0 in 2022.

“This is a new part of the company and the part that’s obviously pretty exciting,” said Adam Ware, VP and general manager, national networks and platforms at Sinclair.

Multicasting Is Now a Business

Digital multicast channels have been around since the broadcast industry went digital in 2009. Most of the early channels subsisted on direct response advertising. More recently, larger broadcasters have been accumulating larger portfolios of channels.

The E.W. Scripps Co. bought Katz Broadcasting in 2017 for $292 million. Katz’s networks include Court TV, Bounce, Laff and Escape. It plans to launch two more channels, Defy and TrueReal, in June. Tegna launched Twist in April following its $77 million acquisition of Justice Network and Quest in 2019.

Comet TV launched in 2015. The science-fiction channel was owned by Sinclair and managed by MGM Television. In 2017, Sinclair and MGM launched Charge, which focused on action films with a sense of humor. Sinclair took over management of both channels in 2020. TBD, a youth-oriented channel, launched in 2016, owned by Sinclair and operated by Jukin Media.

Comet TV began getting Nielsen ratings in 2018, with Charge following in 2019 and TBD in 2020, letting the channels sell a mix of direct response and general-market advertising.

“General-market advertisers really started to look at these channels’ audiences, as opposed to the responsiveness of those audiences,” Ehrlich said. 

According to Nielsen, after Comet TV started airing episodes of The X-Files in the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. time period, viewing among 18-to-49-year-olds rose 357% second quarter to date, compared to the first quarter. After TBD added Wipeout and Fear Factor from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., viewing in the demo rose 46% from Q1 and 103% from a year ago.

TBD in particular is more attractive to general-market advertisers because of its relatively young audience. Those young viewers were less likely to call an 800 number or log onto a website because of a direct response ad, Ehrlich said. The audiences of the channels are pretty distinct, he added.

Sinclair doesn’t break out revenue figures for its digital networks, but Ware said they’ve gotten a good response in the scatter market and revenues have exceeded the budget so far. 

Comet TV, Charge and TBD are also multiplatform with a presence on Stirr, Sinclair’s streaming service, where some of their programming is available on-demand nationally.

Ware said the opportunity for free-over-the air channels will expand as NextGen TV takes root. ATSC 3.0 promises bandwidth for stations to carry more networks and makes it easier for viewers to tune them in.

“All of a sudden you’ve got real capacity,” Ware said. Now is the time to be proactive and launch channels, build their brands and get more digital channels to market. “Some might be paid and some might be free,” he added.

More Nets in the Offing

Sinclair is looking to launch more networks. The company is using Stirr to test channel concepts with an eye towards them becoming distributed as digital OTA networks, Ware said.

At some point, the networks will produce original programming, Ehrlich said. TBD dipped its toe in the water with a clip show called The Link and interstitial content featuring David Hasselhoff, star of Knight Rider, which aired on Charge.

To some degree, the digital broadcast channels are mirroring the way cable channels were built in the 1980s, targeting genres such as science fiction and comedy and relying on off-broadcast programming until the market demands original series.

Digital channels will be easier to watch because they’re being integrated  with streaming channels in increasingly sophisticated smart TVs. But Ware warns, “If you don’t own a station group and you’re trying to do these, good luck.”

And channels are thriving because “there’s real content out there that people want to watch.” Ehrlich said. “I was sort of skeptical, a little bit, until I started to see the numbers.”

Dish Network’s Sling TV remains the lowest priced full-feature virtual MVPD service, and one of the ways it has maintained that price point is by paying only a limited amount of its programming budget to broadcast retransmission licensing fees.

On Thursday, Sling TV announced yet another way its users can conveniently view their local channels free and over the air, rather than having them be part of the license Sling TV service offering.

Now, Sling TV subscribers who use 2020 LG smart TVs enabled with the webOS 5.0 operating system, and connected to an OTA antenna, can port their local channels directly into their Sling TV user interface. That means ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS appear alongside ESPN, CNN and the rest of the licensed cable channels carried in the Sling TV user interface.

With rival vMVPDs including YouTube TV now priced at $65 a month and up, Sling TV has kept its two programming tiers “Sling Blue” and “Sling Orange,” priced at $30 a month.

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Orange comes with ESPN, but no local broadcast networks. Blue has NBC and Fox in select markets. It has a slightly different, more news- and less-sports focused selection of cable networks, with no ESPN. ABC is available on both tiers as a $5-a-month “broadcast extra” add-on.

CBS locals aren’t licensed at all by Sling TV.

If Sling were to license ubiquitous local access to the major broadcasters on all of its tiers as, say, YouTube TV has, its price point would be a lot closer to $65 a month than $30.

Dish and Sling have been working on porting OTA channels into the app environment for several years. Last year, for instance, they debuted the AirTV 2, a device that connects to an antenna and sits on the user’s WiFi network. Local channels are then accessed through app from network-situated devices ranging from iOS smart phones to Roku streaming boxes and sticks.

Roku, meanwhile, is doing something similar with its fast-developing live/linear program guide, surfacing OTA channels alongside licensed live/linear networks within the app’s guide.

"The best value in TV today is Sling TV plus free live locals," said Jon Lin, VP of product for Sling TV. "We're making it easier than ever to watch free local channels directly within the Sling TV app, making 2020 LG Smart televisions an amazing value for those who appreciate a quality viewing experience, live local programming and OTT content from Sling TV.”

Dish Network’s Sling TV remains the lowest priced full-feature virtual MVPD service, and one of the ways it has maintained that price point is by paying only a limited amount of its programming budget to broadcast retransmission licensing fees. 

On Thursday, Sling TV announced yet another way its users can conveniently view their local channels free and over the air, rather than having them be part of the license Sling TV service offering. 

Now, Sling TV subscribers who use 2020 LG smart TVs enabled with the webOS 5.0 operating system, and connected to an OTA antenna, can port their local channels directly into their Sling TV user interface. That means ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS appear alongside ESPN, CNN and the rest of the licensed cable channels carried in the Sling TV user interface. 

With rival vMVPD’s including YouTube TV now priced at $65 a month and up, Sling TV has kept its two programming tiers “Sling Blue” and “Sling Orange,” priced at $30 a month. 

Orange comes with ESPN, but no local broadcast networks. Blue has NBC and FOX in select markets. It has a slightly different, more news- and less-sports focused selection of cable networks, with no ESPN. ABC is available on both tiers as a $5-a-month “broadcast extra” add-on.

CBS locals aren’t licensed at all by Sling TV.

If Sling were to license ubiquitous local access to the major broadcasters on all of its tiers as, say, YouTube TV has, its price point would be a lot closer to $65 a month than $30. 

Dish and Sling have been working on porting OTA channels into the app environment for several years. Last year, for instance, they debuted the AirTV 2, a device that connects to an antenna and sits on the user’s WiFi network. Local channels are then accessed through app from network-situated devices ranging from iOS smart phones to Roku streaming boxes and sticks. 

Roku, meanwhile, is doing something similar with its fast-developing live/linear program guide, surfacing OTA channels alongside licensed live/linear networks within the app’s guide. 

"The best value in TV today is Sling TV plus free live locals," said Jon Lin, VP of product for Sling TV. "We're making it easier than ever to watch free local channels directly within the Sling TV app, making 2020 LG Smart televisions an amazing value for those who appreciate a quality viewing experience, live local programming and OTT content from Sling TV.”

Antennas Direct said it acquired Mohu to become the largest antenna company in the U.S. at a time when more consumers are cutting the cable TV cord.

The combined company will offer both Antennas Direct’s ClearStream outdoor antennas and Mohu’s indoor antennas. Together the companies said they will also be able to invest in antenna technology.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Mohu was launched with one central goal: to spread awareness of the choice that antennas give consumers and make cord cutting accessible to all,” said Mark Buff, founder and CEO of Mohu. “Antennas Direct will enhance the Mohu brand with the innovation, leadership and expertise that they are known for. We are excited that loyal Mohu users will continue to have support and access to our legacy products and now have access to even more products for their cord-cutting lifestyle.”

Dish Network has rolled out the AirTV 2, the second generation of its device for distributing over-the-air broadcast TV reception over home WiFi.

Retailing for $99.99, the device connects to an over-the-air antenna, broadcasting the signal over the WiFi network and making it accessible to connected TVs and mobile devices.

The new iteration features a more vertically oriented stand-mounted, upright configuration—kind of like your home router—vs. the old boxy format of the original device, which was released in 2017.

Beyond a slightly cheaper price—the original retailed for $119.99—Dish says the AirTV 2 is equipped with an 802.11ac 2x2 dual-band WiFi for improved in-home coverage.

The device negates the need to attach an OTA antenna to every TV in the house. It also allows users to place their antenna in the most desirable location.

Users connect to the device via the Sling TV app, which can be used to access OTA channels delivered by AirTV 2, whether they have a Sling TV subscription or not.

Dish is packaging the AirTV 2 with an OTA for an additional $49, and also offering three months free of Sling TV virtual MVPD service.

For an additional $99, you can get the antenna, three months free of Sling TV, an the confusingly branded AirTV Mini, which is an OTT streaming dongle.

An additional $149 ads an additional AirTV Mini to the bundle.

"AirTV 2 takes a great idea and wraps it in an even better package, making it easy for cord-cutters to integrate their local channels with an OTT subscription," said Mitch Weinraub, director of product development for AirTV, in a statement. "The robust WiFi connection means customers can place the AirTV 2 anywhere in the home to get the best possible OTA signal without dealing with the wiring or placing the antenna near the TV.”

The percentage of U.S. homes with receiving local broadcast channels through over-the-air antennas has increased nearly 50% over the past eight years to around 16 million, according to Nielsen.

The research company found that nearly 14% of U.S. homes are watching TV over the air.

Nielsen found that OTA users broke down into roughly two groups.

One has a median age of around 55 and doesn’t compliment OTA programming with streaming services. OTA is primarily a cost-savings tool for these nearly 6.6. million homes.

The other 9.4 million homes does compliment OTA with subscription streamings services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. This group’s median household age is 36. The group also tends to be more affluent.

Notably, the older group tends to watch six hours of television a day, on average—that’s two full hours more than the younger group, which has a more diverse selection of programming services. 

Looking build a full, robust pay TV feature set into its Sling TV streaming ecosystem, Dish Network today announced that it’s adding DVR functionality to its AirTV device.

The upgrade is free to AirTV users but it will require them to purchase an external USB hard drive up to 2 terabytes in size.

The new “Local Channels DVR” will let Air TV users record and watch local channels, both in the home and away, using the newly upgraded Sling TV app. Notably, Air TV users don’t have to have a subscription to the Sling TV virtual MVPD service to use the Local Channels DVR feature.

AirTV’s dual tuner lets users record up to two shows at once, with live and recorded content viewable from any device supported by the Sling TV app. The Local Channels DVR will show up next to the Cloud DVR content area of the app.

Sling TV is the most widely distributed vMVPD on the market, with more than 2.3 million users. And its $20-a-month base tier is among the least expensive, eschewing local broadcast channels.

Dish is trying to work around that with AirTV, a $120 device that sits on the users Wi-Fi network and connects to an over-the-air antenna. Through the user’s Wi-Fi network, the device streams local channels to mobile and OTT devices, both in and out of the home, that have the Sling TV app.

Dish has not disclosed how many AirTV devices it has sold.

"The Local Channels DVR rounds out the complete cord-cutting experience for those wanting to integrate free local channels and DVR with a streaming service like Sling TV," said Mitch Weinraub, director of product development for AirTV, in a statement. "Millions of Americans are embracing over-the-air antennas as part of their cord-cutting solution, and the ability to take their live and recorded content in and out of home with AirTV's Local Channels DVR is just an added bonus."

Yeah, just what the market needs—another skinny live-streamed bundle.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based SiliconDust, maker of the HDHomeRun line of streaming over-the-air tuners, has quietly rolled out a virtual MVPD product including 45 channels for $35 a month.

Starting over the weekend, owners of HDHomeRun streaming devices could sign up for the live-streamed service, which touts ESPN, TNT, CNN and AMC, among its channels.

Retailing for around $120, the HDHomeRun Connect hooks up with an OTA antenna and allows users to stream broadcast networks to connected TVs and mobile devices within the home. SiliconDust recently introduced a DVR extension that lets users record, pause and rewind live-streamed content.

Related: Plex Flexes Live TV Muscles

“Just like you can today, with your channels from your antenna, now you can also record episodes and season programs with HDHomeRun DVR,” the company said in a statement. “All of the functions you are used to using when recording over the air TV will also be available with these new streaming channels. You will see a whole new set of channels added to your line up in our patented SliceView channel list. They’ll show up like any other channel in your TV guide, and the shows on these channels will be recordable just like any other show. Also, don’t forget when you activate the full DVR service you now also have 14 days of guide data so you can plan your recordings well in advance.”

SiliconDust’s product line spans consumer and commercial devices, with the latter line of multicast live-streaming devices combining ATSC tuners and CableCARD functionality, and aimed cable operators.

The consumer line of HDHomeRun devices has proved popular with some tech enthusiasts. But it’s unclear as to how many of the devices are actually in the market.

The virtual MPVD business is currently crowded with large competitors, each operating at a loss in attempt to grow subscriber bases and a critical mass of scale at which content costs go down.

Related: Dish DBS Officially Launches AirTV

Among vMVPDs, SiliconDust seems to be most closely competing with Dish Network’s Sling TV, which is complemented by AirTV OTA streaming devices. Most other vMVPDs have instead aggressively sought out deals with local broadcast affiliates rather than integrate OTA schemes into their services. 

Nuvyyo has reduced the price on its latest Tablo DVR for cord-cutters by $30 in the U.S. amid a wider retail launch.

Introduced in May, the Tablo Dual, a two-tuner OTA DVR with 64GB of integrated storage, originally sold for $249.99. That price has been chopped to $219.99. In Canada, the price on the model has been dropped to C$289.99, from C$329.99

RELATED: Nuvyyo Forges New Cord-Cutting Tool

That price reduction also comes with a wider retail distribution that includes several online storefronts (BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, Wallmart.com, NewEgg.com, Frys.com, and TabloTV.com), complemented by availability at a set of brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. – Best Buy, Micro Center and Fry’s Electronics.

Though a price cut on the product makes sense amid the holiday buying season, Nuvyyo said other elements factored into the decision.

"As we scale distribution of Tablo DUAL and the company overall, we are able to pass savings from efficiencies along to customers and match the commoditization we're seeing in the cord cutting device market overall,” the company said in a statement to Multichannel News.

In addition to providing integrated storage, the Tablo Dual is about 20% smaller than its predecessor. Earlier-generation Tablo products don’t have onboard storage, but do allow users to add storage by attaching a USB-connected storage device.

Tablo Dual users also have the option to add storage (up to eight terabytes) using a separate storage.

The Tablo Dual also includes a 30-day free trial to an optional TV guide data subscription that regularly sells for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

Most Tablo users are cord-cutters that connect the device to a TV antenna to receive the local over-the-air broadcast channels. The device captures those signals and sends them wirelessly to other devices on the home network. Tablo today supports platforms such as Roku players, Xbox and Nvidia Shield consoles, Apple TV boxes, Chromecast streaming adapters, Amazon Fire TV devices, web browsers, smart TVs from LG (WebOS 2.0 and 3.0), and iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. 

AirTV LLC is catching up.

Soon after the products were introduced on Jan. 3, the AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter were taking about two weeks to ship following the initial order due to an “overwhelming initial response.”  That’s been reduced to about five business days, the company confirmed.

RELATED: AirTV Appears Off to Hot Start 

The AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter “are in stock and available to consumers today,” an official said. “Once purchased on airtv.net, these products typically reach the customer’s home within five business days.”

RELATED: Dish Unit Pitches Android TV-Powered AirTV Box for $99

Aimed at cord-cutters, the AirTV product set (the $99 Android TV-powered player and the $39.99 adapter, or $129.99 in a bundle) is designed to support and integrate OTT (including the Sling TV service) and over-the-air TV.

The initial product that's shipping doesn’t provide the full OTT-OTA guide integration shown in beta form at CES, but will be enabled via a software update that will be rolled out automatically to all AirTV boxes by mid-February.

RELATED: AirTV Still Lacks Complete Guide Integration 

AirTV LLC, a subsidiary of Dish DBS Corp., has tapped Technicolor to make the player and  Universal Electronics Inc. to make the AirTV’s voice remote. 

Roku has introduced a batch of new features amid the rollout of OS 7.5, including a live TV pause capability for integrated Roku TVs that use a digital antenna to capture free over-the-air TV signals.

Roku said the new OTA-TV feature, seemingly targeted to cord-cutters and cord-nevers, lets users pause TV for up to 90 minutes, though this capability requires a USB storage device with 16 gigabytes or more of storage to be connected to the Roku TV. Hitachi America, Haier America, Sharp, Insignia (Best Buy’s in-house brand), and Hisense are among Roku’s TV partners.

Roku’s OS 7.5 update also brings the mobile private listening feature to Roku TVs, putting that on par with a capability offered on “current-generation” Roku streaming player (models that are post May 2011). Roku TV users can enable that when using the OTT platform in tandem with the Roku mobile app (so long as the devices are connected to the same wireless network).

RELATED: Roku Streamlines Publishing Platform

The company said OS 7.5 and the updated Roku mobile app for iOS and Android also enable multiple people to use the Play on Roku feature on a Roku device, while also adding screen mirroring to more models, including the Roku Premiere, Roku Premiere+ and Roku Ultra.

RELATED: Roku Revamps Streaming Player Lineup

With the update, Roku streaming player models with remotes with on-board volume buttons can now control the volume level of TVs and audio receivers that support volume control via HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC).

Roku announced earlier this year that it has about 10.6 million active accounts, meaning that they have done some streaming in the last 30 days.

Even as its merger with Rovi nears the finish line, TiVo appears to be pushing ahead with its plans to create new retail products that aren’t traditional DVRs. 

Pointing to documents that recently passed through the Federal Communications Commission, ZatzNotFunny notes that TiVo is working on a new product seemingly tailored or cord-cutters called “Mantis” that is described as a “network DVR” that’s capable of receiving over-the-air TV signals and transcoding them before shuttling them along to another device for viewing using a wireless or wired connection. Mantis appears to be “headless” in the sense that it does not support a direct video output. 

“It looks like TiVo's version of a Tablo to me,” tech blogger Dave Zatz surmises in a blog post about Mantis. “There is a USB port, so I assume that is where you plug in a hard drive for storage. So they are basically going head-to-head against the Channel Master DVR+ with their Roamio OTA and then head-to-head against Tablo with this thing.” 

He also suggests that TiVo could likewise be developing client apps for connected TV platforms such as Roku, Apple TV and  Amazon’s Fire TV. 

We’ve asked TiVo for additional comment about Mantis, but Ira Bahr, the company’s chief marketing officer, shed some light TiVo’s future product roadmap last month in a post to the TiVo Community Forum that indicates a bigger reveal set for the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show: 

“In order to grow, we definitely want to break the trajectory of traditional DVR. We do expect to announce something around CES in January though I don't think we're going to try to compete with the streamers directly. Most likely, the announcement will be in the form of a public beta -- which I have no doubt we will ask TCF members to participate in.”

Update: TiVo is not commenting on Mantis. 

Bahr also noted that TiVo will be making an at the CEDIA event on September 15, when asked if the company had plans to launch a "Pro" version of the 4K-capable TiVo Bolt that might come equipped with more tuners and storage. 

In February, before the Rovi merger was announced, TiVo restructured under a plan that emphasized MVPD partnerships and less so on retail. At the time, Naveen Chopra, TiVo’s interim CEO, noted that the company would apply resources toward new classes of products “that go beyond the traditional DVR.” 

Mantis would seem to fit the bill in that regard. 

Meanwhile, Rovi has stressed that retail will remain an “important channel” for the company following its acquisition of TiVo. 

Old set-tops like the crusty DCT-2000 might make for a good door stop or bookend, but Mohu has discovered a new, more resourceful use for them – mash them into bits and turn that recycled material into antennas that can easily capture free, digital over-the-air TV signals.

Mohu, the TV antenna maker and courter of cord-cutters, has developed the ReLeaf, a “green” HD antenna made from set-tops that have been long been put out to pasture. They’re not talking about which specific models have been crushed into “MohoGrind” pellets that form the recycled TV antennas, but noted that the boxes are locally sourced from the company’s home state of North Carolina.

But Mohu sent me a ReLeaf to try out, and the box it came in clearly shows bits from a Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 3100, and a DCT-class Motorola digital set-top. To give you a sense on the age of that set-top matter, realize that Cisco Systems bought S-A in 2005 (and subsequently sold its CPE biz to Technicolor last year); and Arris nabbed Motorola Home in 2014. DCT boxes are pretty much the Model T of the digital cable era. 

In recognition of International Recycling Day (May 17), Mohu will be offering the ReLeaf for $49.99, a price that includes a 10-foot coax cable to connect the antenna to the TV. Mohu claims that the ReLeaf has a 30-mile digital UHF signal range, and a 10-mile digital VHF signal range.

According to the company, one pound of plastic from a cable box can be used to create 40 ReLeaf antenna “clamshells” – the plastic, flat portion of the antenna that covers the inner foil that receives the OTA signals.  

And I can say that this thing actually works, and works really well.

It took me all of ten minutes to remove the antenna from the box, connect it to a TV, and start scanning for local OTA channels. It found more than 40, and most were coming in crystal clear.

Channels that were coming in pixelated were quickly remedied by a quick adjustment of the antenna. And this was for a TV in my basement that isn’t placed near a window.

Chipmaker ViXS Systems is using this week’s confab in Las Vegas to demo the CordCutter TV streaming stick a device that converts over-the-air TV signals to IP format, enabling a variety of connected video devices to receive, decode and display free HDTV content.

ViXS said it has developed the device, a “while labeled” product for original equipment manufacturers, in partnership with Geniatch, a free-to-air TV tech specialist, and Nuvyyo, which designed the CordCutter TV’s interface, which will support platforms such as the Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV (via AirPlay), Google Chromecast adapter, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, and Web browsers.

Nuvyyo is also the company behind the Tablo OTA DVR for cord-cutters.

The product bakes in ViXS’s XCode 5505 hardware transcoding platform, sports single-tuner support for ATSC OTA reception, a real-time OTA streaming server, and Ethernet or WiFi streaming to video devices.

ViXS said the CordCutter TV platform is available for orders today, with samples to become available in May, and production set for June 2016. 

Offering all local over-the-air broadcast TV channels has been a gap in Sling TV’s lineup since the OTT service launched last February, but a new device being made by corporate cousin EchoStar could help to bridge it.

As first spotted by gadget/tech blog ZatzNotFunny, Sling TV, Dish Network's OTT-TV service for cord-cutters, and EchoStar’s Sling Media unit are getting closer to the launch of AirTV, a device that looks like the recently launched Slingbox M1 place-shifting device, but includes an over-the-air TV tuner.

That OTA A tuner, blogger Dave Zatz speculates, essentially replaces a Slingbox client app with the Sling TV app.

“So, one would hook up the AirTV to an antenna and one’s home network via WiFi or Ethernet and that local television content would be beamed directly into the Sling TV app – at home or while on the move,” Zatz wrote “I’ll go ahead and assume the ultimate goal here [with AirTV] is for the OTA channels from one’s residence to be co-located amongst the pay television channels of Sling TV’s $20 streaming service in a unified guide.”

Zatz, who is led to believe that Sling Media is developing a family of “non-traditional” Slingbox products, came across the AirTV trademark last summer, and The Donohue Report found a few more details on the product plans last October.

EchoStar and Dish have not announced pricing and a possible launch date for AirTV. A Sling TV official said the company could not comment on rumors and speculation.

In the meantime, Sling TV has been making some progress with respect to adding local broadcast TV channels to the mix.

Earlier this week, it announced it is beta-testing a new $20 per month multi-stream service that is anchored by Fox-owned networks, including Fox broadcasting stations in Fox's owned-and-operated markets. In February, Sling TV started to offer ABC in select markets as part of a new “Broadcast Extra” add-on package that sells for $5 per month (on top of a core $20 per month Sling TV package) and also includes Univision and UniMás.

In January, Sling TV launched an app on Channel Master’s DVR+ platform, a subscription-free DVR that integrates broadband connectivity (for OTT services) and over-the-air TV tuning capabilities.

After entering the market a year ago with a platform focused on bringing digital over-the-air TV to mobile devices, TabletTV is adding support for increasingly popular over-the-top services.

TabletTV, a joint venture of Granite Broadcasting and U.K.-based Motive Television, has launched a new app, called TabletTV Plus, that stitches OTA and OTT together. It hopes this blend will appeal to a growing set of cord-cutters and on-the-go viewers.

“What people want is everything in one place,” Luc Tomasino, TabletTV’s launch director, said.

TabletTV’s offering centers on the TPod, an $89.95 device that performs the function of an antenna tuner, able to capture free, over-the-air TV signals for display on tablets with the company’s app. The TPod also has WiFi connectivity and an integrated DVR.

The newest version of the free TabletTV app also integrates Web connectivity and a guide that can integrate access to a Web browser and over-the-top apps and services. In that scenario, a viewer could watch TV in the app while simultaneously surfing the Web, checking email or accessing Twitter or Facebook.

TabletTV has launched a “Plus” version of the app for iOS-powered iPads, and expects to introduce an Android version next year. The current offering also lets users stream video to TVs via support for Google Chromecast and Apple TV (via AirPlay). The iOS app, made available on Apple’s App Store Nov. 15, integrates a guide with the local area’s over-the-air TV stations and the ability to load in “channels” that provide direct access to OTT and Web applications.

Early on, TabletTV’s over-the-top feature preloads access to offerings such as Google and YouTube, though customers can add “Internet channels” such as CBS All Access, HBO Now, Hulu, Netflix and Showtime.

TabletTV is also interested in striking up partnerships with other OTT services that would be interested in premium placement on the app’s program guide.

The company already has some experience with this OTA-OTT mix. Motive Television’s TabletTV operation in the U.K. (a separate unit that is not partnered with Granite Broadcasting) recently introduced an OTT-capable version of the TPod that supports a handful of apps, including YouTube, BBC iPlayer, BT Sport and Netflix.

TabletTV won’t say how many consumers have purchased TPods. The company launched its first beta market test with Granite’s KOFYTV in San Francisco in December 2014.

The company also said it’s too early to get a fix on the primary market for TabletTV and what the profile of the typical customer looks like.

TiVo will look to amp up retail sales with the Bolt, a new platform that supports 4K streaming, a menu of OTT apps, traditional digital cable video services, and a new “SkipMode" feature that could become a lightning rod of controversy with programmers.

As shown at left, the Bolt sports a new, smaller and arc-like form-factor, but will kick things off with two differently priced models – the 500 Gigabyte version will cost $299.99, while the 1 terabyte model will fetch $399.99. Bolt pricing bakes in the first year of the TiVo service, which will later cost subs 14.99 per month or $149 annually. TiVo and its online retail partners will start taking orders today (fulfillments begin next week), and the Bolt will show up at Best Buy brick and mortar stores starting this Sunday.

Bolt will also contain a CableCARD slot (it’s located on the device’s undercarriage) and, for the cord-cutting crowed, will also allow users to capture free, over-the-air TV broadcast signals. The Bolt is also outfitted with MoCA 2.0 for whole-home capabilities when paired with the $149.99 (non-4K) TiVo Mini, and 802.11ac dual-band WiFi.

Bolt’s 4K support will come way of HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and the HEVC and VP9 decode formats, and will initially support 4K via Netflix and YouTube.

"I do expect to add more 4K apps as time goes along; we're working on our application partners on that,” Jim Denney, TiVo’s vice president of product management and strategy, said.

Equipped with four tuners, the Bolt also includes on-board video transcoding for streaming of recorded and live TV to Android and iOS devices and Web browsers. Bolt will support one simultaneous stream at launch, though a November software release will unleash a second. The Bolt will add out-of-home streaming early next year, Denney said.

Replaces the Roamio-S

The TiVo Bolt will essentially replace the Roamio-S, which requires the TiVo Stream sidecar for video transcoding, and “likely replaces” the Roamio Plus in the company’s product line, Denney said. Like the  Roamio-S, TiVo also expects to eventually phase out the CableCARD-free Roamio OTA (the Bolt handles OTA signals).

Updated: However, earlier findings tied to TiVo's new platform suggested that TiVo is also developing an "Aereo Edition" of Bolt, suggesting that TiVo might come out with a model that, like the Roamio OTA, supports OTT and over-the-air TV, but eschews the CableCARD. TiVo acquired the trademarks and the customer lists of the now-defunct Aereo service for about $1 million in March

The Roamio Pro, which doesn’t support 4K but packs six tuners and 3 TB of storage, will remain in the TiVo product lineup.  “We’ll split the line,” Denney said. (The 1.9-pound Bolt is 33% smaller than the TiVo Roamio-S and 65% than the Roamio Plus and Pro).

Bolt will start out as a retail product (the device will provide integration with Cox and Comcast VOD), but “you should expect MSO-specific versions of this coming out,” Denney said.

TiVoended its fiscal Q2 with 6.03 million total subs (941,000 TiVo-owned, and 5.09 million through MSO partners).

SkipMode

One feature new to Bolt that should gain lots of positive attention from consumers and possibly negative attention from programmers is SkipMode.

TiVo said the feature, which lets users skip commercial breaks in recorded shows with the click of a button, will initially be supported on 20 popular channels, including the Big 4 broadcasters, for shows (save for local content and sporting events) that run each day between 4 p.m. and midnight.

Channels that are part of that mix include FX, HGTV, History, Lifetime, NBC, ABC, ABC Family, AMC, Bravo, CBS, Syfy, TBS, TLC, TNT, USA, Comedy Central, the CW, Discovery Channel, Food Network and Fox.

To enable the feature, TiVo is creating tags on those channels that identify when programming begins or resumes. Commercial pods will be illustrated on-screen with a bar along the recording line and a pop up will prompt the viewer to press the “D” button when a commercial break is skippable. Users can also select the remote’s Channel Up/Down buttons to skip forward or back between commercial breaks.

“From a consumer standpoint, we think it’ll be a very compelling feature,” Denney said. “To a certain extent, it’s fast-forward perfected.”

Time will tell if broadcasters and other programmers feel the same way, as Dish’s Auto Hop feature for the Hopper DVR drew lawsuits from broadcasters. However, in January, a U.S. District Court said the technology that the broadcast networks objected to is legal under copyright law or the Supreme Court’s recent Aereo ruling. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's September 2013 denial of a preliminary injunction against Dish’s Hopper DVR service.

Denney said TiVo users are already fast-forwarding through commercials. “What we’re doing is giving them [consumers] a new tool to do what they’re already doing…We’re not affecting any of the underlying content; we're creating the tags to identify where the content begins." 

Other New Features

Thanks in part to a beefier memory footprint, Bolt will support a fast app launch feature for Netflix. While it will take five to seven seconds to fire up Netflix on Bolt the first time, the suspend/resume capability with the Netflix app will reduce that to a second or two, giving it the kind of response time offered by a resident application. That feature is initially Netflix-specific, though TiVo hopes to support it in additional apps eventually. 

With Bolt,  TiVo is also rolling out a freshen up user interface that flattens the graphics, a new color palette, and network logos that will  help users more rapidly identify channels in the lineup. “It’s the TiVo UI with new graphics,” Denney said.

A new QuickMode will playback content at 1.3 times real time with pitch-corrected audio (that will make sure that dialogue played back in that mode won’t sound like Alvin and The Chipmunks).

TiVo is also debuting a new iOS app that will allow users bring more personalization and customization to its What to Watch Now element. While the hobbies and interest feature is only for the YouTube app, customers can now customize by genre across other content sources. The app is also expanding its sharing capability beyond Facebook and Twitter to include email, and links that will also direct users to OTT sources in addition to a portal where they can set a recording.

TiVo is also bringing more speed to its cross-platform (streaming, VOD and recording) OnePass with a feature called Quick Select.

And TiVo’s introducing a new remote that includes RF technology (eliminating the need for line-of-sight).  To help users find a lost remote, a button on the back of the Bolt will trigger the remote to play a song.

Alongside the new features, there’s also something that the new Bolt won’t support early on – the Hulu app.

Denney said that’s because TiVo flipped to an HTML5 app structure. Hulu’s HTML5 app isn’t ready for that platform, but TiVo, he said, hopes to bring Hulu to the Bolt “sometime soon.” 

Frontier Communications has begun to promote a new offering called “FreedomTV” that’s targeted to cord-cutters and broadband-only subscribers that is based on TiVo’s Roamio OTA model.

Word of the promotion, first spotted by DSL Reports, comes about seven months after Frontier and TiVo announced plans to offer a co-branded version of the TiVo Roamio OTA, an HD-DVR model that provides access to over-the-air broadcast TV as well as over-the-top content from sources such as Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.

A web site about the FreedomTV offer says it starts at $20 (with a year of  Amazon Prime baked in), with the caveat that subs also get a qualifying Internet service from Frontier and agree to a one-year service agreement (or get hit with a $100 early termination fee).  

Subs who take the FreedomTV option can also get a TiVo Mini (an IP client to access service on an additional TV) or the TiVo Stream (a streaming sidecar that can deliver live TV and recorded shows to mobile devices) for an additional $9.99 per month.

According to the fine print, Frontier recommends an Internet service that provides at least 6 Mbps, and notes that OTA TV reception requires “clear line-of-sight.”

TiVo introduced the $49.99 Roamio OTA DVR in August 2014 as a “limited edition” model, and expanded to full-on national distribution in January 2015. The Roamio OTA does not contain a CableCARD slot, but is outfitted with 500 Gigabytes of storage, four tuners, Ethernet connectivity, built-in 802.11n WiFi, and access to features such as TiVo OnePass.

As shown in the video below (published on YouTube on Sept. 21, 2015), FreedomTV is clearly targeted to broadband only customers or cable TV subs that are looking to ditch their pay TV subscriptions:

Frontier has also begun to offer all new high-speed Internet subscribers (not just FreedomTV subs) a free year of Amazon Prime, the subscription offering that provides free two-day shipping and access to the Amazon Prime video library, Prime Music and the Kindle Owner’ Lending Library.

Cablevision Systems, which is being acquired by Altice Group, has introduced new service packages tailored for cord-cutters that ties together broadband and OTA digital antennas. 

Channel Master, maker of a subscription-free DVR for cord-cutters with on-board over-the-air TV capabilities, has launched Channel Master TV, a feature that integrates linear OTT streams with the platform’s underlying program guide.

Channel Master, which announced plans for the new linear OTT component in January, said the software update is now being rolled out to all DVR+ customers, enabling them to select and change streams instantly without having to launch separate applications.

In tandem with the launch of Channel Master TV, the company will sell its baseline DVR+ model for $199 ($50 off its regular price) for today only (June 8) from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. PT, alongside free shipping within the continental U.S. and a free HDMI cable. It’s top-of-the-line DVR+ model, which is equipped with 1 terabyte of storage, sells for $399.

Channel Master said it will add Internet channels to the Channel Master TV platform without the need for a software update, noting that customers will receive an email notification when a new channel is added. To help its users customize the experience, they can “hide” and “un-hide” which Internet channels appear on DVR+’s Channel Master TV interface.

Multichannel News has asked Channel Master for a list of OTT “channels” it’s offering at the get-go, but some that are featured in the above company-supplied screen-capture include WeatherNation TV, Biz TV, FoodyTV, and The Outdoor Cooking Channel.

Channel Master has also recently demonstrated Sling TV running on its platform (subscription required), but has not announced when it might make the new OTT-TV service from Dish Network available on DVR+ on a commercial basis.

“This platform is a game changer in an alternative TV solution,” Joe Bingochea, executive vice president of product development at Channel Master, said in a statement. “We’ve taken the app out of the OTT experience for streamed linear video. For people who are looking for a non-traditional TV service, Channel Master TV adds an entirely new dimension, combined with OTA, On Demand and DVR in a single guide with no fees.”

“We’re giving the customer what they want in a true zero-fee TV service. Everything they can get for free, including Antenna Channels, Internet Channels, Streaming Services, DVR and Program Guide, we’re providing with no contract and no subscription. And there’s a lot more to come,” added Coty Youtsey, Channel Master’s president and CEO, noting that in addition to mainstream content such as news channels, the company is also interested in providing “unique programming.” 

TiVo’s plan to create a service along the lines of Aereo, but “done legally and better,” as TiVo CEO and president Tom Rogers put it recently, is still murky, though the company is expected to reveal all at an event in San Jose sometime in July.

In a brief interview Wednesday, Rogers wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag, but dropped some hints suggesting that whatever TiVo does have in mind, expect it to build on what it’s started with the Roamio OTA, a new DVR model sans CableCARD slot that's targeted to cord-cutters, enabling them to combine over-the-air TV with over-the-top video and essentially create their own video service bundles.

“We haven’t been very specific about it,” Rogers acknowledged, “but it will certainly build on what we currently are doing in the OTA space, fully recognizing that there are…consumers out there that are going beyond where Aereo was when it came to recording network signals.”

Notably, TiVo acquired only Aereo’s trademarks and customer lists for about $1 million in March following a bankruptcy auction. Other parties snapped up Aereo’s patents and some of the now-defunct company’s equipment and technology. 

We’ll know more this summer, but I think that scenario makes it unlikely that we’ll see TiVo build and operate its own antenna arrays, a la Aereo, to capture OTA signals and redistribute them via the Internet.  Given Rogers’s most recent comments, I’d expect the coming product to include expansions and enhancements to the Roamio OTA, perhaps with a cloud DVR component.  

The Roamio OTA is starting off as a retail product, but Rogers also talked up how it is also being positioned to help MPVDs counter the small but growing cord-cutting threat. 

“Increasingly, we’re hearing from cable operators on this who say, ‘Hey, we need to have some way of relating to the broadband only subs that are not taking our video package…and provide us with a way to do that with a combination of a device and an interface where we as operators don’t have to bear programming costs,’” Rogers said. Cablevision Systems, which is not one of TiVo's MVPD partners, has already begun to market specialized cord-cutter packages. 

That approach, Rogers said, gives MVPDs “a nice way of allowing people to get network signals without their paying retransmission consent in a nice way for consumers to integrate whatever streaming services they want that don’t involve payment by a cable operator for programming.”

Frontier Communications is the first and only MVPD so far to announce plan to market the Roamio OTA to broadband-only subs, but expect more to join the club.  Frontier president and CEO Dan McCarthy told an investors conference last week that a trial with TiVo is underway.

“We have some interesting discussions going on with various operators on that front,” Rogers said. “I think they’re quickly concluding that it’s not a question of encouraging cord-cutting, but that there are people who are going to not want the video package but are going to want broadband. And they [the operators] want to be able to maintain as close relationship as they can.” 

Following up on a product plan announced last month, Microsoft said Wednesday that an over-the-air TV tuner for the Xbox One gaming console is now available in the U.S. and Canada.

The new OTA device, made in partnership with Hauppauge, gives Microsoft and its Xbox One platform a way to target a small but growing group of cord-cutters (and cord-nevers), while also building on the product’s other video options, including support for over-the-top video from sources such as Netflix, Sling TV and Hulu, integration of authenticated TV Everywhere apps such as HBO Go, TWC TV, and WatchESPN,  and its ability to pass-through traditional pay TV services (by linking the Xbox One to a set-top box via an HDMI cord) and tie it into the console’s OneGuide interface.

To prime the OTA pump, Microsoft said it is selling a bundle with the Hauppauge Digital TV Tuner and  Mohu Leaf 50 antenna at Microsoft retail outlets and online at Microsoftstore.com for $99.99, a $30 discount. Microsoft is also selling the tuner separately for $59.99 at Microsoft stores and via Amazon.

Microsoft said Xbox One users can also stream over-the-air TV to other devices within the home using the Xbox app on Windows 10 devices or the Xbox One SmartGlass app for Windows, Windows Phone, iOS and Android

“Support for over-the-air TV on Xbox One means you can access broadcast networks available in your area, subscription free, and, in true Xbox One fashion, without having to worry about switching inputs between your games and TV,” Microsoft said.

The Xbox One is one of a growing number of products that have emphasized the OTA angle. Others include TiVo (via its Roamio OTA model), Channel Master, maker of the DVR+ system; and Mohu’s recently launched Channels platform.

Television viewers are starting to get back to their wireless roots.

As if traditional pay TV companies don’t have enough headaches from all the new over-the-top upstarts such as Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue — not to mention HBO Now’s recent debut on Apple TV devices — the nation’s cable, satellite and telco TV distributors have another new over-the-top threat to contend with: TV antennas.

Make no mistake: These offerings aren’t your grandfather’s rabbit ears. Companies with high-tech, futuristic names like Nuvyyo and Mohu are jumping into the game, along with TiVo, ChannelMaster, Tablet TV and Simple TV, all of which are combining state-of-the-art digital antennas with over-the-air digital video recorders.

New DVRs can snag content from over-the-air TV stations, the Internet and from subscription over-the-top services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Cobbled together, free broadcast TV and an online video-on-demand service offer a viable alternative to increasingly expensive pay TV packages.

Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo is probably the most well-known name to enter the space — it launched its OTA “Roamio” product last year and has since debuted a $49.99 version that allows customers to watch and record HD-quality broadcast stations, streaming video and subscription VOD.

In February, Roamio introduced a “One Pass” feature that allows viewers to track every episode of specific shows they want to catch up on and display them in a “My Shows” folder. Roamio also includes the intuitive TiVo guide and requires customers to pay a $14.99 monthly fee for storage and guide usage.

Other offerings from Mohu, Nuvyyo, ChannelMaster and Simple TV pair up desktop-size HD antennas that can draw in as many as 40 or 50 digital over-the-air channels in high-quality HD, with DVR capabilities and access to online video and over-the-top subscription services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video, with hopes of extending it to HBO Now, Sling TV and Sony PlayStation Vue.

WHO’S THE AUDIENCE?

While choices continue to grow, the burning question for OTA companies will be just which demographic they are targeting, Telsey Advisory Group analyst Tom Eagan said.

“What is the demographic and psychographic of those viewers: Are they willing to pay for a box and a monthly fee?” Eagan asked. “I think that the TiVo OTA device has potential, but the question is, how many of those 10 million [cord-nevers] will pay?”

For that reason, Eagan believes cable operators are safe for now.

“I don’t think it puts pressure on the MSOs because they don’t serve those viewers anyway,” Eagan said. “But it could serve to add marginal revenue to the programmers which they’ll need with the squeeze we expect due to operator consolidation.”

The idea is that cost-conscious viewers can significantly slash their pay TV bills by combining free over-the-air service with one or several OTT offerings. While the viewer won’t get all the channels they get on cable — and will still require a standalone broadband service for the online-video offerings — they can get most of the programming they want for a much-lower price.

For example, while a traditional expanded basic-cable package can cost about $75 per month for 150 channels, a consumer with an antenna (with a one-time equipment cost of $49.99 to $149.99) and a Sling TV subscription ($20 per month for around 20 channels and counting) will spend less than half that amount.

Over-the-air transmission is nothing new — it was TV’s original delivery method more than 70 years ago. But gone are the bulky and unattractive rooftop antennas and the unwieldy set-top rabbit ears that dominated the space for years. In their place are sleek, small and unobtrusive antennas that don’t look out of place on a bookshelf or mantle. And when coupled with an over-the-air digital video recorder and an online subscription video-on-demand service, they can offer an attractive alternative to traditional pay TV service.

There are about 12.6 million U.S. homes that watch only broadcast TV, according to Nielsen, versus about 100 million homes that have some type of pay TV subscription. And despite the free nature of OTA, getting access to subscription video-on-demand still requires a broadband connection. In most areas, that means maintaining a relationship with a cable or telco broadband provider.

Pay TV operators have responded to the competitive threat with attractive bundle pricing: Comcast offers a package of 140 video channels and 25 Megabits-per-second Internet service for $79.99 per month for one year (rising to $121.90-$136.90 after the first year). The non-promotional price of standalone broadband can cost about $66.95 per month, making the bundle the better value.

But as consumers grow more frustrated and programming packages become more flexible, the pairing of over-the-air service with “skinny” video could become more compelling.

“In the same way that we’ve seen an enormous fragmentation of the channels people watch, “our view is that over the next 20 years, we’ll see a similar fragmentation in the platforms they use to watch these channels,” TiVo chief marketing officer Ira Bahr said.

WEB COMPLEMENT

Free OTA television makes an ideal partner with emerging over-the-top subscription video services like Dish Network’s Sling TV (which brought ESPN outside of the traditional programming bundle), Sony PlayStation Vue and existing services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

“You take an over-the-top service — whether it be either Apple or Sony or Sling TV or whatever, it really doesn’t matter — and you marry it with over-the-air signals, that’s going to be a powerful proposition for many consumers,” Bahr said.

The situation is a little different for TiVo, which has a large customer base for its more traditional DVR set-tops in the pay TV sector. Bahr doesn’t see TiVo’s Roamio box as a total replacement for pay TV, but as a way for consumers to access — and integrate — all of their services more easily.

But other companies focusing on the over-the-air space see two markets emerging — one for the 10 million or so households that have never had a pay TV subscription and a second for additional sets in pay TV homes.

According to Nielsen, the number of broadcast TV-only homes rose from 12.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 12.6 million in first-quarter 2015, while the number of TV sets has stayed relatively steady, at about three per household.

Increasingly, TV antennas are beginning to attract interest from cost-conscious customers and younger viewers who don’t want to pay for channels they don’t watch.

That could be a big selling point for OTA because, according to Nuvyyo CEO Grant Hall, broadcast is what most people are watching anyway.

“About 47 of the top 50 shows are available over the air,” Hall said. “There is still a lot of content that people rely on.”

Nuvyyo just launched the latest version of its broadcast digital video recorder, the Tablo Metro, in the first quarter, and believes the market may be more like 20 million or 30 million homes, or between 20% and 25% of the nation’s 110 million television households.

Driving that increase, Hall argued, is the introduction of devices like Roku and Apple TV — estimated to be in about 20% of U.S. homes.

“I would argue that we’re kind of at the tipping point [where] OTT and OTA is really going to take off this year,” Hall said. “A lot of people are saying that this will be the year of the cord-cutter, 2015. All the tools are falling into place to replace the old legacy experience and I think there is demand out there.”

Unlike the not-too-distant past, when some antenna companies had to wait for the latest retransmission-consent blackout for a sales boost, consumers are increasingly warming up to the idea of free TV. Last year, Antennas Direct hosted an event in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with TVFreedom, a consortium of stations, small businesses and other groups interested in preserving over-the-air TV. It gave away 1,000 HD antennas is about an hour. Antennas Direct has said it has given away about 15,000 antennas over the past two years.

Others, like Mohu, have paired up with cable operators during blackouts for giveaways — CEO Mark Buff said the company has sold about 1.5 million to 2 million TV antennas since 2010 (it was initially a manufacturer of military antennas and has had pay TV-provider customers in the past). Though the momentum seems to be shifting toward a combination of over-the-top services and over-the-air stations targeting consumers who either never had a pay TV service or have recently cut the cord, Buff sees opportunity in providing a broadcast alternative for customers of more traditional pay TV providers.

“We certainly get phone calls from companies we wouldn’t expect to get phone calls from,” Buff said, adding that that fights over retransmission consent have helped Mohu’s antenna business.

But not everyone is warming up to the idea that free TV will take a bite out of pay television subscriptions.

NOT QUITE ENOUGH

Pivotal Research Group principal and senior media and communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said he was skeptical that over-the-air television offers enough to get customers to cut the cord.

“Realistically, Netflix could drive consumers into these options better than anyone, but I doubt they would actually do so, given it would alienate the folks they buy content from,” Wlodarczak said. “So in the end I don’t think this makes pay TV nervous.”

Mohu has four antenna products: the Leaf Metro, the Leaf 30, the Leaf 50 and the Sky 60, ranging in price from $24.99 to $149.99 and delivering from 32 to 60 over-the-air channels. The devices are sleek, thin and compact — the Leaf 30 and Leaf 50 can fit on a bookshelf — and deliver high-quality HD signals that outperform pay TV in quality because signals are not compressed.

The over-the-air choices depend on the individual market but in metropolitan New York City, at least 58 digital OTA channels are available, including the digital feeds of the major broadcast networks, three public broadcast channels, Spanish-language broadcasters Telemundo and Univision and digital niche channels such as Antenna TV, Decades, Cozi TV and Bounce TV.

Earlier in March, Mohu launched Channels, a service that ties in SVOD providers like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon with its over-the-air offerings, which it hopes will resonate with customers. Mohu also is in talks with Dish Network to be a certified Sling TV partner.

“Up until Sling TV, your only option was Comcast and Time Warner Cable,” Hall said. “Now, that option is available if you have Netflix and Hulu, Sling and us — the local broadcast networks, two-thirds of all the shows that people watch — that combination gives you ammunition to say goodbye Comcast, goodbye Time Warner, goodbye Verizon.”

ChannelMaster executive vice president Joe Bingochea said OTA companies should strive to offer a growing menu of services. Channel- Master, which has sold a line of antenna products since 1949 and has an over-the-air DVR product (DVR Plus), is readying its own OTA “linear” service to add to the mix.

Bingochea said the company expects to launch the service, which basically allows it to aggregate and integrate over-the-top and online content, including The Pursuit Channel, the Outdoor Cooking Channel and Foodie TV, into its guide product at the April 13 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

“We want to give the consumer options,” Bingochea said. “If you want Sling TV, we want to have it on our box. If you want to order movies a la carte, we have Vudu for transactional VOD. If you want online video, we have YouTube for online.”

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Over-The-Air Broadcast TV

1.MORE CHANNELS THAN YOU THOUGHT. Beyond ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, in some markets there are as many as 50 digital broadcast channels available over the air, including Spanish-language Telemundo, Univision and Unimas, Chinese-language NTDTV, kids’ channel Qubo and family-friendly and classic TV channels such as Cozi TV, MeTV, Antenna TV, Bounce TV, Escape TV, Grit and This TV. All for free.

2.DVRs ARE EVERYWHERE. You don’t need a cable, telco or satellite subscription to record over-the-air shows on a digital video recorder. Companies like TiVo, Nuvyyo, Channel Master, Simple TV and others have all come out with variations of products that will record, pause and rewind live broadcast shows, complete with programing guides that offer show synopses, cover art and metadata.

3.QUALITY TV FOR CHEAP. Broadcasters still spend big on original programming. And broadcast shows are consistently at the top of the most-watched programming. According to the Television Bureau of Advertising, 96 of the top 100 shows in 2014 were broadcast shows.

4.BROADCAST-ONLY HOMES ARE GROWING. According to Nielsen, the number of broadcast-only homes is on the rise. As of March, 12.6 million TV homes received their TV via broadcast-only, up from 12.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2014.

5.NOT MUCH BROADBAND. More than half of the broadcast- only homes in the U.S., about 6.6 million households, also have no access to broadband or narrowband Internet, according to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report

SOURCE: NAB, TVB, Nielsen, SNL Kagan, individual companies.

Channel Master has added Pandora Internet Radio to DVR+, its subscription-less DVR product line that is targeted to so-called "cord-cutters."

DVR+ supports over-the-air digital TV antennas and delivers a small-but-growing batch of over-the-top apps via the product’s broadband connection. DVR+ also supports the Walmart-owned Vudu service, and Channel Master expects to add a couple more apps to the mix by mid-November, a spokeswoman said, noting that the company has been making attempts to get Netflix on board because customers are screaming for it, but no deal has been reached.

Channel Master also announced that purchases from the company’s online store that include DVR+ will now ship for free in the U.S.

Channel Master expanded its DVR product line in July with a $399 model that includes 1 terabyte of storage, complementing an original $249.99 model that holds 16 gigabytes but is expandable using an external USB-connected hard drive. Both contain two tuners and support a 14-day channel guide.

TiVo recently introduced a “limited edition” OTA model for cord-cutters that costs $49.99 and requires a subscription that runs $14.99 per month (with a one-year commitment). 

Simple.TV is also competing in this part of the market with a two-tuner DVR/video server that costs $199.99 and an optional subscription service. It recently added a feature that lets users share recordings with up to five friends.