Nielsen: 9.6 Million Households Still Unprepared For DTV Switch
Nielsen survey also shows that 12.6 million have at least one analog only set, and that there is a race and income gap, with blue collar and minority households less prepared.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/15/2008 6:16:00 AM
According to Nielsen, 9.6 million households would receive no TV at all if the DTV transition happened today.
In addition, another 12.6 million have at least one analog-only TV set in the house not hooked up to cable or satellite or DTV-to-analog converter box that won't receive a digital signal after the Feb. 17 transition.
That translates to one in five homes not entirely ready for the switch with four months to go.
The number of "fully unprepared homes" decreased by only 1.4 percentage points between May 1 and Sept. 1, said Nielsen, which leaves 8.4% unready.
The most unprepared matket is Houston, with 15.8% unprepared, while the most prepared market is Fort Myers-Naples, FL, with only 2.4% unprepared, according to Nielsen.
But Nielsen also pointed out that one-quarter of the unready sets in households aren't being used for TV watching, but instead for video games or watching DVD. So, some of those unready sets will never be used for TV tuning and never converted.
The study found that households with less education, lower income and blue collar workers were the least prepared, and that there remained a race gap, with older, white Americans better prepared than Hispanics, African Americans or Asians.
For example, 13% of Hispanic households are unready, as are 12.5% of African American households.
According to Nielsen, owners of "unready" TV sets have predominately removed or replaced them (38%), switched to cable or satellite (37%) or gotten a DTV-to-analog converter box.
The FCC and National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA administers the converter box coupon program) are encouraging viewers to order and try out their boxes before the end of the year. NTIA is expecting a spike in coupons requests and says that viewers need to have applied for the boxes by the end of December to make sure they can get the coupons, buy and try the boxes before the Feb. 17 cut-off date.
It will need to be even sooner for some markets. Hawaii is making the switch a month early, while some places with tough winters or other issues are switching even earlier.
Check out B&C and Monkeysee.com's series of videos on the DTV transition here.
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INSIDER: All parties need more time to get it right, for the public to get ready, and for more digital TVs to penetrate the marketplace.
ps - On whose "inside" are you on? If you are in the broadcast biz, you should be worried about a sudden shrinkage in audience, which would affect ad revenues, and the political ramifications of viewer protests... but it appears that many execs aren't tuned into this probability.
Adam Smith - 10/15/2008 4:38:00 PM EDT -
Adam Smith,
Do you really think there wouldn't be any issues if the date was moved? The problem isn't the date.
Insider - 10/15/2008 4:17:00 PM EDT -
STOP THE SUICIDE -- EXTEND ANALOG SERVICE. Congress must delay the end of analog to Aug. 31st, 2011, the Canadian date to avoid severe damage to broadcasters and to disenfranchised viewers. The coupon program is backlogged and has funding problems. Antennas have been an afterthought, as has the issue of re-aiming antennas in the dead of winter. This is a public safety issue as well as a question of fairness. The industry's "let 'em buy cable" attitude is shortsighted. Reset this whole process by adopting the Canadian deadline. To save face, the industry can say it just makes sense to coordinate analog shut-off with our northern neighbors.
Congress must do this NOW and not wait for an embarrassing public outcry come February. Then convene hearings to find out who's responsible for a billion-dollar boondoggle, and to come up with a better way forward.
Adam Smith - 10/15/2008 1:38:00 PM EDT
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