2.8 million not ready for DTV transition

Are you ready to go digital? Almost 3 million American homes may not be...yet.

Friday is the deadline for the country's move from analog to digital TV. At that point, most analog signals will be shut off. But 2.8 million homes still lack the necessary equipment to receive digital transmissions, says a report released Wednesday by Nielsen.

The number of homes not ready for DTV represents 2.5 percent of the TV market. The report notes that younger, African American, and Hispanic households are disproportionately unready, while the elderly are the most ready.

Geographically, the greatest number of unprepared homes are in the Western U.S., where cable isn't as prevalent as in other parts of the country, says Nielsen. The highest number of ready viewers are in the Eastern U.S.

The digital switchover was originally set for February. But with too many people still unprepared, the government delayed the move. Without a digital TV, cable or satellite connection, or a converter box, viewers won't be able to tune into their favorite shows.

Nielsen is optimistic, though, noting that the delay from February to June gave more people time to get ready. And those still not prepared are expected to catch up.

"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. We will continue to follow this trend closely."

From the government's end, the Federal Communications Commission expects some bumps in the road, but is optimistic.

[t3po7re54]

The government has been broadcasting this for years. It's their own fault if they have not prepared by now and the transfer should go ahead as planned.

[rdupuy11]

all they had to do is something simple, instead of cutting off TV and having it go dark, just switch to a 24 hour infomercial about how your tv shows are now playing on another channel....

they could have done that months ago, they only needed broadcasters to be ready, not end users.

[timber2005]

Did they NEED 27/4 infomercials? I mean the banners at the bottom of the screen have been a pretty nice compromise between taking regular programing away... sandwitched between a DTV switch commercial as it is. And I'm on CABLE.

[Ed0719]

anyone who doesn't already know is too stupid to own a tv anyway...

[ferricoxide]

And that's pretty freaking stoopid.

[Thranx]

Let them lose thier TV. Inaction is thier own fault. They also aren't taking into accout the people with an older TV that just don't care. I have a set of grandparents and a great aunt & uncle that are just going to not upgrade. They don't watch TV enough and really don't care.

This has been put off WAY too long.

[BK216]

There is a small minority of people in the US who will never be "ready" for the switch. The only way to make them "ready" is to make the switch. Then after they find out that their TV doesn't work they'll seek out the proper help to make it work again.

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

This is a sad testament to the effectiveness of TV advertising. There is so much of it that it just gets tuned out. With the remote in hand, I kill the sound on commercials. Other people I know get blasted by the higher volume of commercials and when I ask about it, they say they just did not hear it.

Thinkk back to the great Y2K disaster. We were told for years that January 1, 2000, would never occur. The power would go out, the water would stop, the gasoline would dry up, the car would not start, and the sun would just not rise that morning. What, me worry? The warnings were false and everyone just tunes out the warnings. What makes DTV any different?

[ferricoxide]

@Been_there_Saw_it_before:

If we were just talking about the mid-programming PSAs, I might buy that "tune-out" argument. However, the notices have been scrolling past in creeper-bars during actual programming (you know: the same space that EBS messages scroll by on).

[SoarNut]

It will not take long for them to figure it out once it goes black. Rignt now they not motivated.

[mactx]

This digital switch over has been advertised on TV (on local stations no less) for well over a year and I really have no sympathy for anyone not ready for it. If you're not ready when Friday rolls around it's apparent that TV isn't that important to you so it shouldn't make a difference if you're ready. You obviously didn't feel it was important enough to get ready.

[rmva]

The good news is there is nothing on television - so they won't even notice that it has gone black.

[Dalkorian]

The entertainment value might actually go up when it goes black! :-)

[BogusBasin]

I am sooo tired of all the commercials warning me about the switch for soooo long now. Make the switch and ****!

[MadLyb]

The industry and, by proxy, the government pushed this as a relatively simple transition, but nothing could be further from the truth and the media has only addressed the issue in bits and pieces.

First, the converter boxes are not exactly the pinnacle of engineering with many different kinds of issues. Also, it was late 2008 before anyone starting talking about the antenna issues and mainstream media has yet to talk very well to the fact that the FCC allowed stations to reshape their transmissions which means coverage maps would change. Finally, it turns out that even the people who have successfuly made the transition to using a converter box will have to know how to rescan after the cutover.

I expect a fair amount of distress next week.

But, with that said, we have sat on the pot long enough. Time to get this over with and just deal with the after effects.

[BCF1968]

I don't expect distress. 35% of stations have been digital sicne at least Feb 17th. 40% since April 16th. If there was going to be distressed you'd think it would have shown up by now. The fact is that so far every place that has already gone all or mostly diigtal has had very few to no issues whatsoever.

people should have been ready by now. No reason to to have already gotten a box and fix whatever antenna issues you may have had. The weather has been decent for 2 months now. So none of this "I couldn't fix my antenna because it was snowing" excuses.

[ferricoxide]

If I had any objection to this, it would be the stupidity of doing it on a Friday. Were it done on a Monday, you'd have all week to get to the store or call Geek Squad (et. al) for you to sort things out. In many places - particularly those small-town areas that make up the bulk of the "not ready" demographic - the stores you'd buy the equipment in are only going to be open Saturday and *maybe* very limited Sunday hours. These also tend to be the same areas where finding the stores that carry the units are a non-trivial drive.

[MadLyb]

@ferricoxide

Exactly what I was thinking. I guess they have a good reason for Friday, but it isn't obvious to me.

If you guys look at the Nielsen ratings you will realize that the most active days and evenings for watching television, on average, occur on Thursday, Wednesday and Sunday (in that order). To have the least impact to the broadcast networks revenue by viewership loss and the most amount of available free time for the consumer to attempt to purchase the digital converter box / digi TV the best day for the digital only broadcasting to occur is at the beginning of the day on Friday.

As far as distress or issues, there will be plenty. You are forgetting that you commenters here are among the most technically literate in the world. I deal with this everyday as I have created new technologies over the the past 15 years that each of you now take for granted. It's a part of your life that, for the most part, you have integrated into your lexicon of technical fluency. The tacit assumption that these people are stupid is probably a bit off even though these people are frustrating. Maybe this commenter (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/questions-from-readers-about-the-palm-pre/?apage=6#comment-208709) comes pretty close to your description (but probably more on the side of irresponsible and uninformed).

There are people who actively choose or by means of their current life (e.g., they're infirmed, they're in a group situation, they cannot afford even $80 since Soc.Sec. doesn't provide enough, etc.,...) are not prepared for the forced dTV transition.

The transition should have occurred in Feb on its original date. Regardless of date we'll always see changing pains. But we're here now and let's just get on with it.

[drewbyh]

Too bad. If you haven't done anything about by now then you're not going to do anything about it. Move on.

[mgc6020]

Oh come on....give them another.....6 or 7 years more. ;)

[ewsachse]

The best part of the statistic is that the over 55 generation is more prepared than the under 35 generation. No more blaming old grandmas and grandpas for the delay of the DTV cut over. The so-called technologically proficient "i Generation" has no idea that you can get a high quality picture in HD over the air for free. Do these under 35'ers even know the purpose of an antenna, or were they weened on so much cable TV that they actually think you have to pay some utility $50+ a month to watch TV loaded with commercials?
Maybe the under 35 crowd should put down their cell phones, stop text messaging for 10 minutes, and actually pay attention to what is going on in the world.

I believe it's exactly the opposite. I believe they know and don't care. Following many of the digital media blogs (like here at cNet) and many many others the general feeling that I get is that the younger generation feels like TV and video is a web or computer -based experience.

Most TV programs can be found among the video sharing sites (YouTube, Hulu, TV.com, metaCafe, etc.,...) or through Torrent sharing (e.g., PirateBay, Vuze) or from any of a number of Chinese or Korean servers. I sold off my Tivo years ago since I found that I missed TV shows because I was working in front of the computer or out on some outdoor adventure and would return to my computer when I came home. I could always find the show online and watch it on the second monitor while I surfed and read emails. It's the same thing I do when watching in the living room (watch on tv and surf on the laptop).

While I am among the over 40s I think I'm more like the under 35s in the sense that they are consuming video/TV media by means other than the broadcast signal -- in other words broadband.

[keithprickett]

Since when is it a requirement to have T.V.? Also, how many of those "aren't ready" don't even care or don't have a T.V. to begin with?

[sbwinn]

I'm with Keith. I haven't watched TV for more than a few minutes in the last 4 years. All I ever hear is that there is nothing on worth watching, so I figure I'm not missing much! I've never seen a commercial for the DTV transition. . . maybe that's why I am so horribly unprepared.

[MadLyb]

It is not a requirement to have a TV, but along with radio and newspapers (which I think will be replaced by the 'net), TV is considered the primary vehicle for the government to communicate with citizens and preventing people from access is considered a form of censorship.

Not that I completely agree, but I understand the reasoning.

[Norseman]

Anyone who isn't ready by now is probably dumb enough that they'll enjoy just staring at a TV with nothing but snow and noise on it.

[jag0]

The appropriate responses are: "Umm...so" and "F*ck 'em, they've had enough time"

[Tansho]

Its called sh*t or get off the pot. Stop hand holding the lazy. Come 6/12/09, if you don't have a digital tv, cable, dish or a converter box, too friggin bad.

[warpsix]

Those that stole the tv's will be the hardest hit. I hope the goverment goes and checks for the converter boxes at the homes of those that ordered the coupons. i have seen enough people order the coupons only to sell the box on craigslist.

[timber2005]

If people have the money to buy one from Craigslist........

[Altotus]

HAHA lol rof I sold my TV years ago I don't care I haven't watched that vampire of life and time for years I can do all sorts of things set free from video slavery. NO cable charges no satellite bills Waaa Ha! Iits money in my pocket no stupid commercials Hold on it let me repeat that NO STUPID commercals and oh YES I know all caps is "shouting" WAHAHA! Is it possible that after having watched Gilligans Island for the Nth uncounted time that everyone is now Free of video slavery? NO of course not but its a start. Oh for all those who say I haven't watched but for a few minutes sell that hot box of energy and time consumption and gain a few more minutes of life and reduce energy consumption as well.

This is a good thing celebrate!

Oh by way of disclosure I gain no revenue from advertising on TV lol snicker.

[The_happy_switcher]

That's pretty cool that you can get wifi deep in your cave. How's Osama doing?

[palapaquete]

There are some channels that stopped their analog signal in February. Here CBS and Fox 44 sopped analog transition, PBS a month ago, there were few still transmitting, also a Spanish channel had a big red box in their analog channel saying you where not ready.
So people how really cares, are ready or they already know what is coming.

[gerrrg]

They should have switched it in February. It's like taxes in April; you'll always have people who either will miss the deadline or are just completely clueless.