Nielsen: 2.8 Million Homes Still Unready For DTV Transition

In its last update before the majority of TV stations pull the plug on analog June 12--joining the rest who already have--Nielsen estimates there are approximately 2.8 million homes still unready for the transition.

By that, it means that according to their in home survey of Nielsen's metered households, those are over-the-air-only households without a digital TV, cable or satellite service or a converter box.

But Nielsen says it is expecting most of the rest to get ready once stations make the switch.

Minorities and lower-income families are the least ready. Conversely, seniors, one of the target populations, continues to defy predictions by being the most ready group.

The good news is that unreadiness figure has been cut in half since February, when analog initially wa to have been shut off.

In raw numbers, Los Angeles has the most unprepared homes at 252,180 (4.46%), while Albuquerque has the highest percentage of unready homes at 7.58% (52,235 homes).

Acting FCC chairman Michael Copps is in Los Angeles today (June 10) to publicize the transition and urge viewers to take steps to keep their TV signals.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.