Under 4% Of American Homes Unready For DTV Transition

Since mid-February (the original date for the DTV switch) more than a half-million homes have prepared themselves for the Digital TV transition according to an update from The Nielsen Company. As of March 1, 3.9 percent of all TV homes remain unready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today. Congress has set June 12 as the new date for the nationwide transition to DTV.

Households Unready For DTV Since May 2008

DATE	% of U.S. HHs Completely Unready	% of U.S. HHs Partially Unready
1-Mar-09	3.90%	9.80%
15-Feb-09	4.40%	9.80%
1-Feb-09	5.10%	10.2%
Jan-09	5.70%	9.20%
Dec-08	6.80%	10.00%
Nov-08	7.40%	10.30%
Oct-08	7.70%	10.70%
Sep-08	8.40%	11.00%
Aug-08	8.90%	11.40%
Jul-08	9.30%	11.60%
Jun-08	9.60%	11.80%
May-08	9.80%	11.90%
source © The Nielsen Company 2009

Readiness By Age

Older households (where the age of the Head of Household is 55+) are still the most ready of the age groups and their unreadiness rates continue to decline steadily. However, younger household (under 35 and 35-54) readiness improved by nine-tenths of a percentage point in just the last two weeks.

Unready Rate by Age Of Head Of Household
DATE	Under 35	35-54	55+
1-Mar-09	7.20%	3.80%	2.20%
15-Feb-09	8.10%	4.20%	2.60%
1-Feb-09	8.60%	5.00%	3.20%
Jan-09	8.80%	5.60%	4.00%
Dec-08	9.90%	6.60%	5.20%
Nov-08	10.60%	7.00%	5.90%
Oct-08	10.60%	7.30%	6.40%
Sep-08	11.10%	8.20%	7.20%
Aug-08	11.50%	8.90%	7.40%
Jul-08	12.00%	9.20%	7.90%
Jun-08	12.40%	9.40%	8.20%
May-08	12.40%	9.60%	8.70%
source © The Nielsen Company 2009