It’s interesting that the article neglected to mention the single largest reason for the dip in viewership - the DTV switch. By and large cable TV viewers were unaffected by the switch, but OTA (Over The Air) viewers of locally broadcast signals were hit - some hit hard.
Analog isn’t digital and the two technologies have different presentations in their communities. Analog is a bandwidth hog, but you can still view a tolerable 15% signal-strength analog reception (if you don’t mind a little snow) whereas anything less than ~60% digital signal and your picture freezes or disappears altogether.
Although both types of signal are “line of sight”, analog is (was) much more tolerant of topological events (like hills and trees). That means the old analog signal could travel up to four times the distance before degrading to the point of unsuitability.
The bottom line is that for huge numbers of OTA viewers, their TV’s went dark, and for the poor among us, will stay dark.
The Big Four’s numbers have been declining for the past several years. And you are correct, there are a significant number of viewers that quit altogether when OTA broadcast went digital.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/278505-FCC_Finds_More_Analog_Signal_Loss_Than_Initially_Predicted.php
FCC Finds More Analog Signal Loss Than Initially Predicted
355 stations now losing more than 2% of their former analog audience
It isn’t just the poor. I have a couple of friends who didn’t upgrade or get new TV’s and they are solidly middle class. One of them doubts she will get the TV fixed. She and her husband are having such a good time without the TV, she doesn’t want it back. They’ve been married about 25 years and she feels like it’s a second honeymoon.