Report: 2.5% of U.S. Unready for Digital TV Switch on Friday

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 8:24am.

New York - With the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting just days away, some 2.8 million American households, or 2.5% of the U.S. TV market, remain completely unprepared, according to the latest figures from Nielsen. The elderly are the most prepared, while younger, African-American and Hispanic homes are disproportionately unready.

Nielsen noted that the markets with the most unready households tend to be in the Western U.S., where cable penetration is lower; the most unprepared market is Albuquerque-Santa Fe, where 7.6% of households remain unready.

"Since February, when the U.S. government postponed the transition for three months, the number of households that are completely unready has been cut in half - from 5.8 million to 2.8 million homes," said Sara Erichson, president of media client services at Nielsen.

"Given the importance that television plays in the day-to-day life of most people, we expect that the most of the remaining unready homes will take the necessary steps to get ready once the stations make the final switch to digital transmission."

http://www.nielsen.com