Nielsen’s countdown of American households that are unprepared for the DTV transition showed that as of March 1, 3.9 percent of all U.S. TV homes are completely unready for the analog switchoff.
The figure, released March 5, shows continued progress in the effort to make the transition to digital over-the-air TV broadcasting as smooth and painless as possible.
The latest figures also reveal demographic information about the households that remain unprepared. By race and ethnicity, the figures revealed 3.2 percent of whites, 6.7 percent of African-Americans, 6.5 percent of Hispanics and 4.5 percent of Asian-Americans were completely unprepared. By age, 2.2 percent of households headed by those over 55 years old were unprepared, while 7.2 percent of households headed by those under 35 years of age were not ready.
In February, the government postponed the DTV transition until June 12 with the enactment of the DTV Delay legislation. Prior to taking office in January, the Obama administration asked Congress to begin work on a delay.
