• by Wayne Friedman , November 25, 2008

Analog TV homes continue to change over to digital TV households at a slow pace--with Hispanic TV homes going at a more sluggish rate.

According to Nielsen Media Research, those who still have analog-only TV signals are now at 7.4% of U.S. TV homes, or 8.5 million households. This is a slight improvement over the 8.8 million that were unprepared in October, which represented 7.7% of all TV households.

Back in May, 9.8% of all TV homes were analog and only 11.9% of TV homes were partially ready--homes in which at least one TV set gets digital signals. Partially ready TV homes have now improved to 10.3%.

Non-Hispanic households continue to be more ready than their Hispanic TV counterparts. Analog-only Hispanic TV households are at 12.4% in November--unchanged versus the 12.4% number in October. This current number has only improved two percentage points from May, when it was at 14.4%.

During that time, non-Hispanic homes have made more rapid progress, now at a 6.7% number in November--down from a 7.1% in October, and a 9.2% number in May.

Breaking down the numbers demographically, Nielsen says TV homes in which the heads of the household are adults under 35 years old are the most unprepared--at 10.6% of all TV homes. Adults 55 and older are the best-prepared; in that category, only 5.9% of those TV households are unready for the digital changeover. Those who are 35-54 heads of households are 7% unprepared for the digital changeover.

The official change to all digital signals will occur Feb. 17, 2009.

 

	% of U.S. Households that are Completely Unready	% of U.S. Households that are Partially Unready
May 2008	9.8%	11.9%
June 2008	9.6%	11.8%
July 2008	9.3%	11.6%
August 2008	8.9%	11.4%
September 2008	8.4%	11.0%
October 2008	7.7%	10.7%
November 2008	7.4%	10.3%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Nielsen Media Research