Digital Switch Improves, Nearly 5 Mil. Still Unprepared

tv watcherAnalog TV households are making some gains into transitioning their televisions into sets with digital signal service.

In the past two weeks, Nielsen Media Research says 570,000 homes have made the switch to digital from analog. This brings the analog TV world down to 4.5 million U.S. households--or 3.9% of all homes that are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting June 12.

In mid-February, the number stood at 4.4%. At the beginning of February, those that were totally unprepared were at 5.1%. At the start of the year, it was at 5.7%. The majority of people unprepared for the digital switch are poor, elderly or living in rural America.

What hasn't changed much are homes that are partially unready, which stands at 9.8%. In such households, the main TV set is getting digital signals--typically through cable or satellite service--but secondary TV sets, in bedrooms or in other rooms, are still analog.

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The 9.8% is the same as two weeks ago, dropping a little from the 10.2% number at the beginning of February. But according to Nielsen, it appears that the unpreparedness of these households actually has climbed a bit since the beginning of the year, where the number originally stood at 9.2%.

Currently, the Albuquerque-Santa Fe market continues to be the least prepared, with just under 10% of households completely unready.

1 comment about "Digital Switch Improves, Nearly 5 Mil. Still Unprepared ".
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  1. Maren Woodlock from Noble Advertising, March 6, 2009 at 4:53 p.m.

    Some people will never be prepared. This was announced a couple of years ago. It's a good thing that it wasn't the end of the world we had to get ready for. The same 5 million wouldn't be prepared.

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