More than 5 million U.S. households – or 4.4 percent of all homes — are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today, The Nielsen Company reported today.  This is an improvement of more than 800,000 homes since Nielsen reported readiness status at the beginning of February.
Percentage of Households that Are Completely Unready For the Digital Transition

Preparedness as of:
Overall
White
African-American
Hispanic
Asian
Under Age 35
Over Age 55

Feb. 15, 2009
4.4
3.6
7.5
7.4
5.1
8.1
2.6

Feb. 1, 2009
5.1
4.1
8.7
8.5
6.3
8.6
3.2

Jan. 18, 2009
5.7
4.6
9.9
9.7
6.9
8.8
4.0

Source: The Nielsen Company

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As Americans prepare for the shift to digital television, Nielsen has been at the forefront of tracking the public’s readiness for the change.  As the February 17 transition approaches, new attention has been focused on the sizeable number of people, particularly from minority communities, who have not yet taken action to prepare and may lose their signals.
Two Nielsen executives, Susan Whiting, Vice Chairman of the company, and Anne Elliot, a Vice President, spoke with the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, respectively, about the preparedness of some communities and …

In recent months, U.S. households have accelerated their preparations for the nationwide switch to digital TV, Nielsen reported Tuesday.
The percentage of completely unready households declined from 8.4% in September 2008 to 7.7% last month — the largest single-month change in the past six months, according to Nielsen.

Just four months ahead of the nationwide transition to digital TV, more than 9 million U.S. households — 8.4% of all homes — remain unready for the switch to all-digital broadcasting, Nielsen reported Wednesday.
If the transition occurred today, those 9.6 million homes would unable to receive any television programming, while another 12.6 million households would have at least one television set that would no longer work.
In all, one in five U.S. households are either partially or completely unready for the government-mandated switch to digital programming that will occur on February 17, …

With the nationwide transition to digital TV in the U.S. just four months away, more than 9 million U.S. households remain unready for the switch to all-digital broadcasting, according to Nielsen.
NielsenWire recently spoke with the co-author of Nielsen’s most recent report on the transition to digital TV, Steve McGowan, Senior Vice President, Insights and Client Research Initiatives, Nielsen.
NielsenWire: How has digital preparedness changed since Nielsen’s last report this past spring?
Steve McGowan:
Not all that much.  Since last May, when 9.8% of homes were “completely unready,” the number has dropped by just …