According to Nielsen’s latest figures, approximately 3.8 million, or 3.4 percent of U.S. households remain completely unready for the transition to DTV, scheduled to take place June 12. This is an improvement of more than 260,000 households just within the past two weeks. An update from two weeks ago showed roughly 350,000 homes preparing for the transition. The total percentage of households unprepared for the DTV transition has been cut in half since December’s estimate of 6.8 percent.
The majority (6.2 percent) of those 3.8 million unprepared households are African American, according to Nielsen, followed by Hispanic households at 5.6 percent, and Asian households at 4.4 percent. Interestingly enough, with all the attention paid to assisting senior citizens—considered among the most vulnerable of broadcast only consumers—Nielsen shows that only 1.8 percent of households headed by persons aged 55 and older are unprepared, compared to 6.3 percent of households of 35 years of age or younger.
Among the 56 metered markets, which represent approximately 70 percent of all U.S. TV households, Albuquerque-Santa Fe remains the "least ready" market with 9.4 percent completely unprepared. Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston are next with 6.3 percent of TV households not yet ready. According to Nielsen, the Providence-New Bedford market—the largest DMA where all broadcasts stations are now digital only—was listed as “completely ready;” the Hartford-New Haven Conn. DMA follows with less than 1 percent of OTA households unprepared for June 12.
