Sorry but that's not at all true and any ham here that's ever worked 2mtr VHF or UHF will back that up. Line of sight only for TV is a 1950's wives tale when receive technology was nowhere close to where it is now.
When ATSC was first introduced there were people all over the country that were commonly watching the experimental stations from hundreds of miles away with good preamped antennas and 1st generation ATSC receivers on UHF. Digital modulation is often far more robust than analog at equal power and equivalent distance.
If the OP is comparing antennas, the Batwing is by far the superior antenna and depending on where you are in and around Quartzsite can see stations from Yuma and Phoenix