In Depth
Nielsen: Some Households Still Not Ready for Digital Transition
A Nielsen analysis of the readiness of U.S. viewers for February’s digital television transition revealed that there are still segments of the population that are unprepared.
Nielsen found that 22% of sampled households had at least one television that would not work after the transition date. While that number is down from 23.6% in January, 9.4% of television households are completely unprepared for the transition, with no ready TV sets.
Milwaukee has the highest percentage of completely unready households at 18.3%. Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore., Houston and Minneapolis-St. Paul follow close behind. Hartford and New Haven, Conn., New York, Atlanta and Fort Myers-Naples, Fla., have the lowest percentage of unready households.
The analysis also found that Hispanic households would be most affected if the DTV transition were to take place today. Hispanic TV households make up 19.9% of all completely unready households.
Viewing by Nielsen metered households on unready TV sets currently makes up 8.1% of all television usage during prime time and 7.5% of all television usage during the total day. Completely unready households make up an average 6.9 hours of daily tune-in, while completely ready households average 8.7 hours.
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Peter Bright
If they proceed with the NTSC SD shut off date as published then they can just kiss millions of viewers good bye.
Though many of us are totally in tune and have spent a lot of money to have HD/DTV receivers, many others don't understand it, don't want it, or just don't have the money to make the change.
We media folk need to be more aware and understanding of the millions who are still awestruck to have color TV.
We may want the VHF/UHF bands for other money making propositions, however we may be cutting our noses off not to wait a couple of years.
Peter Bright