Nielsen: DTV Unready Households Decline

Nielsen said Tuesday that the number of TV households "completely unready" for the DTV switch declined from 8.4% of TV households in September to 7.7%, the biggest decline in the past six months. Since there are 114,500,000 TV households, according to Nielsen, that would mean if the switch to DTV happened today, about 8.8 million households would not be ready, meaning they do not have a DTV set, an analog-to-digital converter box or cable or satellite service. The "completely unready" figure is down from 9.8% in May as broadcasters and the government continue to alert viewers to the switch via public service announcements and outreach efforts. Nielsen says that Hispanic viewers, who tend to have a larger percentage of over-the-air viewers, continue to lag their non-Hispanic counterparts, with 12.4% completely unready vs. 7.1% for non-Hispanic households.