Percentage of US population that can get antenna
 

Hi, I'm doing some research on over the air TV reception and would like to know roughly what percentage of the US population is capable, given an atic or roof mounted antenna.

If this isn't available the then next best thing would be to know about TV reception by channel for each zipcode or county in the US....then I can just cross reference this with population statistics.

Thanks!

Here's a link to an old article (published before the digital transition) that probably has some of the stats you're looking for:

The Analog Shutdown, for Better or for Worse

Perfect, exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

To answer your question. At least 90 % of the US population can receive broadcast television with a Tv antenna. We are 2 generations removed from a time when broadcast Tv was the only way to receive Tv. With the advent of Digital Broadcast Television there are more channels to watch and some of them you will not receive with pay cable or pay satellite. Digital broadcast television can put up to 6 Tv sub channels in the space of 1 of the old analog Tv channels. The typical number of Tv sub channels is 4. Digital broadcast television can broadcast music channels or can transmit different types of data streams.

Thanks for the info. That article has the info I need. Although, it would be nice to be able to see which percentage of the US population can get clear reception of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and the CW, all 5,...since those are the minimum channels people would likely need if they wanted to turnoff their satellite, cable, or telco pay-tv and just get OTA broadcasts.

Based on that article previously posted, it's ambiguous. About 90% of the US population gets at least 5 digital channels. But some of those channels would not be of the 5 mentioned. I presume the 55% of the US population that gets 13 digital channels would get at least the top 5 networks. So, it appears to be btw 55 and 90% of the US get the top 5 networks. Although, we know that at least ~14% of the US population doesn't subscribe to Pay-TV. If we assume that they get the top 5, then this narrows the range to 55% to 86%, or 71% on average.

Look here for some additional information.

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

Some Tv stations are transmitting the networks that you have listed on the sub channels . for instance CBS on one sub channel and the CW on an other sub channel. So that it can appear that one of the listed network channels is not being transmitted in a area of of the US when really it is. Digital Broadcast Tv transmission is still new and more and more of the the listed networks are being added to Tv stations sub channels all the time. This is true for full power stations and low power stations and relay/translator stations.

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

You can also contact your listed network stations directly and ask them for percent coverage of the USA. Or if you like I will contact them for you , I will ask them about direct transmission on one channel and the the sub channels.