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Nielsen Report Shows 9 Million Homes Not Ready for DTV

October 24, 2008

By Jennifer Hull

According to The Nielsen Company, more than 9 million households are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting in February and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today. Another 12.6 million households have at least one television set that will no longer work when the digital transition occurs, meaning that nearly one in five U.S. households are either partially or completely unready for the transition.

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.

Eight Percent of U.S. Households Not Ready for DTV Transition

In a recent research paper, Nielsen reported that the number of fully unprepared homes decreased 1.4 percentage points from May 1 to September 1, 2008, leaving 8.4% of all U.S. households still completely unready.

New details from this report 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.

Nielsen Methodology Used in Recent DTV Study

These estimates are based on the same national and local television ratings samples that are used to generate television 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 U.S. population including African American and Hispanic populations, these household characteristics in the samples can be projected to the whole country.

"Through its representative panels of television households, Nielsen is uniquely positioned to draw a complete picture of the impact of the digital transition," said Pat McDonough, a Nielsen senior vice president for insights, analysis, and policy. "We hope this report will help the broadcasting industry and the government as they accelerate their campaign to educate consumers about the need to transition to digital television."