• by Wayne Friedman , September 8, 2009

The Nielsen Company now says just 710,000 homes are unable -- or decline -- to take digital TV signals.

Since the final changeover was made on June 12, Nielsen says 1.8 million analog TV signal homes became digital TV signal homes. On June 14, Nielsen said 2.2% of the country was without digital TV; the number now is 0.6%.

Nielsen now says 99.4% of U.S. TV homes are able to receive digital TV signals.

The biggest percentage of homes that are still not receiving digital TV signals are Hispanic TV homes, at 1.3%. Next are African-American homes at 1.0%. White American homes are at 0.5%, and Asian-American homes at 0.4%.

The best-improving groups versus the last reporting period -- on July 26 -- were African-American homes, which stood at 2.2%, and Asian-American homes, which were at 1.3%.

In regard to young and old TV viewers, those under 35 are still more resistant to the changeover -- at 1.4% -- versus those over 55. Just 0.2% of those older TV homes are without digital TV signals.

Six months ago, back in February, 4.4% of U.S. TV homes were without digital TV shows. That was sliced in half by June 14, the final analog-to-digital TV conversion date.