When it comes to television viewing, what’s old is new again as an increasing number of Americans are dumping their cable boxes and going totally retro.

That’s right, the tried-and-true TV antenna — just digitally enhanced and minus the goofy bunny ears — is having a moment in the spotlight as people search for cheaper replacements for their cable and satellite TV packages.

In fact, since 2013, the percentage of broadband households in the nation using only antennas to watch linear TV has jumped from 9 percent to 15 percent, according to data released this month by Parks Associates.

“That’s a significant increase and a steady trend upward,” said Brett Sappington, who as senior director of research at Parks Associate tracks trends in TV viewing. “There is a bit of a renaissance for the antenna. For many years, the trend in the U.S. was in the rise of pay TV as a primary entertainment option for consumers. But, if you look worldwide, over-the-air broadcasts are by far the dominant way people watch TV channels.”

And, really, the resurgence in antenna usage in the U.S. isn’t all that surprising. What with some cable and internet packages climbing well past $250 per month, a consumer pushback was seemingly inevitable.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that all you need is a digital antenna for live access to over-the-air, HD broadcasts on the local stations we all know: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS and the CW. Plus, you can find several affordable antenna options at your neighborhood Walmart, and plenty more on Amazon.

Better still, once you have said antenna, those broadcast channels are all free. Yes, reception, obviously, varies based on your location, but a handy tool from the Federal Communications Commission makes it easy to gauge what stations have the strongest signals in your neighborhood.

The antenna’s comeback can be directly linked to the increasing cost of traditional pay TV packages, Sappington said. At the end of 2016, American households, he said, were paying, on average, $84 a month just for cable or satellite TV.

Truth be told, the households embracing antennas probably never watched the broadcast networks all that much to begin with.

“My impression is that the vast majority of people using antennas are doing it because they’ve bought into some streaming service and don’t want to watch that much broadcast TV,” said Paul Verna, an internet TV analyst with e-marketer.

Ultimately, those streaming choices let consumers piece together their own version of the classic cable bundle.

So, while the antenna may seem like a blast from past, it really presents a path to the future.