One in Five US Households Not Ready for Digital TV, Houston Least Prepared

October 16, 2008

This article is included in these additional categories:

African-American | Broadcast & Cable | Hispanic | Media & Entertainment | Television

Some 9.6 million US TV households are still not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting next February and would be unable to receive any TV programming at all if the switch occurred today, according to a research report from The Nielsen Company.

Another 12.6 million households have at least one television set that will no longer work when the digital transition occurs, meaning that nearly 20% of US households are either partially or completely unprepared for the transition.

Among the 56 geographic markets that Nielsen measures with electronic meters, the least prepared is Houston, with 15.8% of the households completely unready.

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The most prepared market is Ft. Meyers, FL, where only 2.4% of homes are unready.

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Under government-mandated action, all television stations are required to switch to digital programming by February 17, 2009, which will leave viewers without a television signal unless they purchase digital television sets, connect to cable, satellite, and alternate delivery systems or purchase a converter box.

Nielsen reports that the number of fully unprepared homes decreased 1.4 percentage points from May 1 to September 1, 2008, leaving 8.4% of all US households still completely unready.

New details from Nielsen show that households headed by less-educated, lower-income and blue-collar workers are least prepared for the transition. Consistent with trends in previous reports, older, white households are better prepared than their younger, African-American, Asian or Hispanic counterparts.

Nielsen also found that nearly a quarter of all “unready” analog sets are not being used to view regular television. These sets, which are in both partially and completely unprepared homes, are being used for DVD, VCR and video games.

Demographic Findings

  • 13% of Hispanic households are completely unready for the digital transition. About one-quarter of the households that speak only or mostly Spanish are completely unready.
  • 12.5% of African American households are completely unready for the digital transition.
  • Households with total annual household income under $25,000 per year are five times more likely to be unprepared than households earning over $75,000.
  • Households whose head-of-house possesses less than a high school diploma are about twice as likely to be unready than ones with a college degree.
  • Households whose head-of-house is in a blue-collar occupation are about three-quarters more likely to be unready than one in a white collar job.

Potential Impact on TV Viewing

  • About 15% of primetime viewing among English-language broadcast networks occurs on “unready sets,” compared with 26% of viewing among Spanish-language broadcast networks. The greatest contribution of viewing to unready sets is among children and teenagers.
  • Unready TVs are disproportionately in the kitchen or secondary bedroom, as opposed to the living room or master bedroom.
  • In homes that have made the transition from “unprepared” to “prepared,” there is a 19% increase in overall viewing.
  • Owners of unready televisions are dealing with their sets in a variety of ways: Among households that have done something about their analog sets, 38% of unready televisions have been removed or replaced; 25% have been made ready through a new digital tuner and the rest have either been switched to cable or satellite distribution.

About the research: Nielsen’s estimates are based on the same national and local television ratings samples that are used to generate national and local TV ratings. To conduct the survey, Nielsen representatives observed and tabulated the actual televisions used in its samples. Because Nielsen has developed samples that reflect the total US population including African-American and Hispanic populations, sample household characteristics can be projected to the whole country.

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