Antennas Direct, a St. Louis-based digital TV antenna manufacturer, said Thursday it expects bring in $21 million in revenue in 2011, up from $8.7 million in 2010, as more Americans migrate back to over-the-air reception.

Richard Schneider, president of Antennas Direct, is benefiting from more consumers choosing to cancel their cable. He calls over-the-air digital TV "the new basic cable."

The nation’s broadcasters invested $15 billion to rebuild their stations in preparation for the switch to digital TV two years ago. Now pay-TV providers, for the first time in history, lost a record number of subscribers in 2010, Antennas Direct said. It has also been estimated that 1.6 million people will cancel their cable or satellite by the end of 2011, according to the Convergence Consulting Group.

“This year we are on pace to liberate nearly one million Americans from an unhappy relationship with their pay TV provider while putting over $1.1B annually back in the pockets of our customers,” Schneider said.

Last summer, Antennas Direct made Inc. Magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing companies. The company ranked No. 457 with $7.4 million in revenue in 2009, up 655 percent from $973,275 in 2006.