Thanks for passing this on Benny.

Rosella




On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:57:40 -0000 "Benny Drinnon"
<bennydrinnon@...> writes:
> From the yahoo home page:
>
>
> Confusion expected as analog TV broadcasts end (AP)
> NEW YORK - More than 2 million households are in danger of seeing
> their major broadcast TV channels disappear into a fuzz of static
> when analog service ends Friday, according to surveys.
>
> That is nearly half the number that were unready in February, when
> most analog TV broadcasts were originally scheduled to be turned
> off. The shutdown was delayed for four months at the behest of the
> Obama administration.
>
> Research firm SmithGeiger LLC said Thursday that about 2.2 million
> households were still unprepared around the beginning of June.
> Sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters, it surveyed
> 948 households that relied on antennas and found that 1 in 8 had not
> connected a digital TV or digital converter box.
>
> Nielsen Co., which measures TV ratings with the help of a wide panel
> of households, put the number of unready homes at 2.8 million, or
> 2.5 percent of the total television market, as of Sunday. In
> February, the number was 5.8 million.
>
> "We know some viewers will wait until the very last minute, or even
> after June 12, until they take action," said Paul Karpowicz, second
> vice chair of the television board of the NAB.
>
> Requests for $40 converter box coupons from the government have
> spiked this week, according the to the Department of Commerce. On
> Monday alone, it received requests for 179,000 coupons, nearly twice
> the daily rate it saw a month ago. However, those coupons won't get
> to viewers by Friday. It takes nine business days. Without the
> government discount, converter boxes generally cost between $40 and
> $60.
>
> Nielsen said minority households are less likely to be prepared, as
> are households consisting of people under age 35. Households with
> people older than 55 are far more likely to be prepared than the
> average.
>
> The Albuquerque-Santa Fe area continues to be the nation's least
> ready market in the Nielsen survey, with 7.6 percent of TV
> households still unprepared.
>
> Nielsen does not survey Puerto Rico, which is also believed to have
> many unready households. Both the Caribbean island and New Mexico
> have relatively few households connected to cable. Households that
> have all their sets connected to cable or satellite service are
> unaffected by the analog broadcast shutdown.
>
> Both the Nielsen and SmithGeiger surveys count households as
> unprepared even if they have taken some steps toward getting digital
> signals, like ordering a converter box coupon.
>
> Stations will start cutting their analog signals Friday morning, but
> many will wait until the evening. Nearly half of all U.S. stations
> have already ended analog transmissions, though most big-city
> stations have held off until Friday.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
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