This is one of most common questions I was asked by my customers when I was running my business. The answer is it depends. Ultimately it will depend on the strength and quality of the signal in your area.
If you are in a good signal area(for instance you can see the TV Towers) you can easily run up to 6 TV points off an aerial. On the other hand if you’re in a poor signal area even running just one or two points will be hard.
Another factor affecting how many TV points can run off one antenna is the quality of cabling. Older Air Core RG6 or RG59 cables have greater losses and are more affected by noise. You only have a finite amount of signal coming into your antenna and a Digital TV requires a certain minimum signal level and quality. Everything between your antenna and the TV loses signal and degrades quality. So the less losses you have in your cabling the more you can get out of your antenna signal.
What if you don’t have enough signal for the number of TVs you want to run off you aerial? This is where an amplifier comes in. A TV Masthead or Distribution amplifier boosts the signal level and cleans it up so that a higher strength, better quality signal arrives at your TV. However I would advise you should avoid using an amplifier unless it is necessary. There are some disadvantages to having an amplifier for your DTV, such as the need to have a power supply plugged into it. I will discuss these issues in a future article.