A new report from Nielsen shows that U.S. homes that don’t receive television service often still own TV sets, reports David Bauder at the Associated Press.

About 5 million homes don’t get TV signals through pay-TV providers or over the airwaves, but about three-quarters of those homes have TV sets anyway, the story notes.

The reason? Many of those viewers watch programming on their TV sets using DVDs or services such as Netflix.

"The company’s report shows how the nature of TV service is slowly changing. Before the percentage started declining about three years ago, more than 99 percent of TV homes received the traditional TV signals. Now that has dipped just below 96 percent," Bauder writes.

Some of the decline is due to financial issues, with some consumers cutting expenses, the story notes.

Consumers are also spending less time watching traditional TV, with the average consumer spending 2% less time on the activity. That time was made up through watching shows or movies on DVDs or via streaming services, the story adds.

Nielsen said it’s considering changing its definition of a TV household by including people who watch services such as Netflix, instead of only via traditional TV signals, according to the piece.