Latest Nielsen figures put DTV unreadiness at 5.1%
by Richard Lawler 
posted Feb 5th 2009 at 1:14PM
As of February 1, Nielsen is calling 5.8 million homes still completely unready for the DTV transition, 5.1 percent of the population. That's up 700,000 from last month, but still apparently enough to put the kibosh on a February shutoff across the country. Albuquerque-Santa Fe still leads/trails all markets, we'll see if they get any special attention from the FCC and others over the next few months.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kain @ Feb 5th 2009 1:40PM
As an American i am pissed at how our government babies people, Life without TV is not the end of the world and i fear Obama will be the socialist i thought he was and give everyone government hand outs just like the fiscal socialist that was George Bush!
Ron Paul 2012!
Phoenixfury @ Feb 5th 2009 1:54PM
I'm not against the dtv coupons at all.. However my problem with this whole thing is they aren't calling it by what it really is.. Television stations can still shut down if they choose to do so and many will.. With that said they should be describing this as the DTV coupon extension program, not the new DTV Transition date. That is my only problem with this because I believe calling it the new transition date is only going to confuse people..
David Hildreth @ Feb 5th 2009 1:56PM
wat?
Multi-format-mayhem @ Feb 5th 2009 2:10PM
Kain go and look up what the word 'socialist' actually means.
Obama is not a socialist.
You're not alone in this, many Americans suffer the same illusions
(similarly the term 'liberal' is completely misused)
you must have a completely inappropriate definition for the term.
An element of 'social assistance' or incorporating a 'social dimension' in planning or even talking about having a 'social conscience' does not in itself make one a 'socialist'.
Hell, even Bush (mk1 & mk2) at one time talked about 'compassionate conservatism'
(yeah I know).
Obama is by European standards pretty right-wing (which only shows how out of step the US is).
The notion that he is supportive of the state taking control of 50%+ of all of the economic activity in the USA is, frankly, laughable.
But that would be a true 'socialist state'.
Kain @ Feb 5th 2009 2:19PM
Multi-format-mayhem - Just look at all the welfare obama has snuck into his so called "Stimulus Package" Any one who wants to create a welfare state is a socialist in my book! It's BS Republican or Democrat The Democratic Party is the most corrupt party in history and The Republicans aren't far behind.
Multi-format-mayhem @ Feb 6th 2009 10:58AM
Kain @ Feb 5th 2009 2:19PM
" Any one who wants to create a welfare state is a socialist in my book!"
Well then like I said you (as many Americans do) are using the term completely incorrectly.
That would merely describe a 'mixed economy' - something which is quite normal in the wider world - and in the US the 'social' part would still be a small and minority fraction of the total economic activity.
Until state activity goes over 50% of the share it cannot be accurately described as a genuine 'socialist state'.
Obama is not a socialist, the very idea is, ridiculous.
David Hildreth @ Feb 5th 2009 1:55PM
:|
Brent @ Feb 5th 2009 2:55PM
So it's 5.8 million people that don't have a clue?
Rich @ Feb 5th 2009 7:28PM
Yay, the 5% of the population tha can't get it's act together, holds up a transition that has been underway for ten years, where an end date was in stone for three years.
Mike @ Feb 5th 2009 3:04PM
This is very misleading. How many out of the total US households are ready is not important...how many of the households that receive only over-the-air signals for TV is. And that is FAR less than the total households.
MooseMuffin @ Feb 5th 2009 6:20PM
Doesn't that mean they managed to successfully reach 95% of the country? That seems pretty good to me. Switch it over already!