Nielsen Says 6.8% of Homes ‘Completely Unready’ For DTV Transition
More Households Getting Prepared for Feb. 17 Deadline
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/19/2008 10:25:00 AM
The percentage of homes that are “completely unready” for the all-digital transition next February dropped to 6.8% in December, Nielsen reported Friday.
The level of preparedness among U.S. households continues to improve, according to Nielsen, but in the past month the pace at which U.S. households are getting ready has slowed down slightly. Between November 2008 and December 2008, the penetration of Completely Unready households dropped six-tenths of a percentage point, from 7.4% to 6.8%.
The penetration of homes that are partially unready dipped to in December to 10% from 10.3% in November.
Nielsen’s readiness data are based on sets and households in our National People Meter panel, which can be projected to U.S. television households, and our local metered panels, which can be projected to their respective television household populations.
Non-Hispanic households continue to be more ready than their Hispanic counterparts, Nielsen said, but the rate at which Hispanic households are getting ready is picking up. The penetration of completely unready households among Hispanics dropped almost a full percentage point in the past month, to 11.5% from 12.4%, after being essentially flat during October and November. That is the strongest single month change yet seen.
Households of all ages continue to become more ready, according to Nielsen. Older households (Age of Head of Household 55+) are still leading the way and have shown the greatest improvement overall. Younger households (Age of Head Of Household 35 to 54) remain the least ready, but showed their largest month-over-month improvement in December 2008.
