NEW YORK — The number of US homes that don’t get traditional television service continues to increase, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have TVs.

The Nielsen company said in a report issued on Tuesday that three-quarters of the estimated 5 million homes that don’t get TV signals over the airways or through cable, satellite, or ­telecommunications companies have televisions anyway.

Many of these homes are satisfied with using their TVs for games or to get programming through DVDs or services like Netflix or Apple TV, said Dounia Turrill, senior vice president for client insights at Nielsen.

Part of the TV decline is also economic — service is deemed expendable by people struggling to make ends meet, Nielsen said.