Study: 91% of Hispanics Aware of DTV Transition

The vast majority of broadcast-only Hispanic TV households are aware of the digital-TV transition, up from less than one-third of those households that were aware of the transition last fall.

That is according to a new study from the National Association of Broadcasters, which found that 91% of Hispanic households getting their free TV via rooftop or indoor antennas knew about the upcoming DTV switch, compared with 31% in a similar study in September 2007.

Hispanics are one of the target populations for DTV-education campaigns since the percentage of broadcast-only Hispanic TV households is larger than that of the general population (more than 40%, according to a Knowledge Networks/SRI study cited by the NAB).

Of those who knew about the transition, 68% said they had learned about it via TV messages.

The poll was conducted by Smith-Geiger for the NAB March 29-May 13. It was a telephone survey of 3,978 Hispanic households nationwide, of which 1,096 (28%) were broadcast-only.

The NAB said it would have DTV-education information on display at Esperanza USA's annual conference in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. The faith-based nonprofit claims a network of 10,000 and community-based agencies.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.