True to many variables in reception for ota to take all in account. But an omni directional antenna would help get most people ,withing 25-30 miles of the towers, ota reception. I just think that ota is essential for satellite , due to weather problems. You need to be able to tune into ota channels when satellite is out, because of storms like hurricanes , severe thunderstorms, etc. A back up system so to speak, located right in your satellite receiver ,so no switching inputs to get to it etc. I can speak from experience back in 2007 when we had hurricane Humberto come up in the night and take a direct hit on Nederland where I live. We were told that it would be a light tropical storm ,under 75 miles an hour , when we went to bed. Around 2:30 am in the morning, I woke to feel the mobile home creaking and my son running to us from the other side of the house because his room was moving. The tie downs on his room broke. I went to the tv and turned it on and it was on an ota channel, which we could easily see we were being hit by a cat 1 Hurricane instead of a tropical storm. I could tune to any ota channel with ease and got the information we needed before the lights went out about 20 minutes later. Satellite was of course down , so it was critical that we could tune to ota to know what was going on. We rode out the storm and within a couple of hours it passed and we were fine. My sat dish was fine and even the terk 44 clip on antenna was still intact. Soon as the lights came back , so did the satellite.