LOS ANGELES: Southern Californians are rediscovering over-the-air television. Ethnic communities are most actively adopting broadcast TV, according to the Los Angeles Times. Around 20,000 Asian-American homes in Southern California switched to over-the-air TV last year, the Times said. Around 8,000 African-American homes switched to free reception. Among all demographics, Latinos have the highest reliance on over-the-air reception in Southern California, with around 440,000 homes--about one-fourth of TV households in that demographic--using rabbit ears, Yagis or some other form of antenna.
The Los Angeles market, the second largest in the United States, has some 70 over-the-air channels, many of them with Asian or Spanish language content. Not all 70 come in across the entire market, but enough to induce Orange County resident Mike Mahan, who told the Times he was tired of paying for channels he never watched.
Richard Schneider of Antennas Direct in St. Louis, told the newspaper his sales have gone “through the roof.” Sales tripled since the DTV transition, he said. Antennas Direct now sells around 100,000 units every month.
The full, updated story is available from the San Jose Mercury News.
