Free-TV Households Reluctant to Switch to Digital

WASHINGTON, June 4: A new
study released by the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) found
that the 22 million American households that rely exclusively upon free,
over-the-air television are reluctant to adopt digital TV sets or subscribe to
cable or satellite services, with only 7 percent owning a digital television
set, and 23 percent subscribed to cable or satellite.

As the U.S. prepares for
the transition from analog to digital-only signals, the study concluded that
many consumers are generally unaware of the nature of the transition and do not
fully know what the direct impact on their ability to watch TV will be. An
earlier APTS report revealed that 61 percent of over-the-air households had
"no idea" the DTV transition was taking place. Free over-the-air
households have also resisted subscription campaigns by cable and satellite
companies. The population of free, over-the-air households has virtually
remained unchanged since 2004 at 22.6 million, compared with 22.5 million in
the first quarter of 2007.

“Public broadcasters have
long supported a successful DTV transition. However, our study confirms that
the government grossly under-funded consumer education when it mandated the end
of television as most people know it by February 2009,” said APTS president and
CEO John Lawson. “We need a Y2K-level effort to ensure that people are aware
that their older TV sets will go dark in 21 months if they don't acquire a
digital converter, buy a new set or incur the monthly cost of a cable or
satellite bill. They also need to know that digital over-the-air television will
continue to be free, will offer them many more channels and will give them a
better picture even on an older set-if they get a converter box.”

The study also found that
the number of cable and satellite households that owned a digital television
set grew from 4.49 percent in the first quarter of 2005 to 23.45 percent in the
first quarter of 2007. However, the percentage of over-the-air households that
owned a digital television set only grew from 1.96 percent to 7.12 percent over
that same period. The results are based on nearly 36,000 telephone interviews
of American television viewers conducted by the research firm CENTRIS.