Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

By Frank Macek The latest numbers from the end of April continue to show people unprepared for the switch to digital television on June 12th. With seven weeks to go, 3.5 million or 3.1% of U.S. households remain completely unready. That means that when analog stations sign off, they will be without any over the air reception. The good news is this number has decreased by 100,000 households according to Nielsen. Hispanic households improved four-tenths of a percentage point. African American households were unchanged. Households with younger adults saw a two-tenths of percentage point improvement. Of the 56 local metered markets surveyed, Albuquerque-Sante Fe is the most unprepared market with 8.77% completely unready. The only totally DTV ready market continues to be Providence-New Bedford, with Hartford & New Haven next best. The Cleveland/Akron/Canton Market is the 9th WORST prepared market with 4.62% of households unprepared. That is up from 10th WORST just two weeks ago. Source...

By Frank Macek According to Nielsen, 3.6 million or 3.2% of tv households, are still completely unprepared for the digital tv transition as of April 12th. The good news is Nielsen reports an improvement of nearly 200,000 households in the past few weeks since their March 29th survey. This is down from 4.4% of tv households from February 15th - just 2 days before the original transition date when some stations did make the transition on time. Now, there are just under 9 weeks to go until June 12th. Here is how the numbers broke down demographically from the April 12th report: Overall: 3.2% White: 2.5% African American: 5.9% Hispanic: 5.4% Asian: 4.3% Under Age 35: 5.9% Over Age 55: 1.7% Least Prepared Market: Albuquerque-Santa Fe (9.1%) Completely Prepared Market: Providence-New Bedford The Cleveland market which includes Cleveland, Akron and Canton has 4.3% of households totally unready. This was the 10th least prepared of the 56 metered markets Nielsen surveys. Our neighbors in Colu...