Interesting Stats On HDTV, DTV Transition
A report released in June from the U.S. Government Accountability Office has yielded some interesting statistics on HDTV and the pending migration of television broadcasters to digital television (DTV) in February 2009. Among the information contained in the findings are the following statistics:
- 84% of people surveyed know that the transition is happening.
- Almost one-half of those who need to do something to still watch TV on some or all of their sets had inadequate plans or no plans to address that problem.
- While more than one-half of those polled knew about the government’s converter-box-subsidy program, only one-third of those knew how to get the boxes.
- One-third of those who didn’t need the converter boxes or coupons were going to apply for them anyway.
- Some 464,000 ($40 Government) coupons have already expired without being used, or about 58% of the 800,000 that already reached their expiration dates.
- The NTIA’s Bernadette McGuire-Rivera stated that the NTIA has decertified about one-dozen retailers — she called them “bad apples” — that were putting consumers on waiting lists for boxes, getting them to “swipe” their cards so that they could collect the $40 subsidy and then keeping them waiting for boxes that never arrived.
More information on the report is available at Broadcasting and Cable Magazine.
