DTV countdown: Stats for the 30-day mark

Consumer Reports News: May 14, 2009 06:08 AM

It's T-minus 30 days till the DTV transition on June 12, when analog TV broadcasts will become largely a thing of the past. Digital TV is already going strong, with 94 percent or 1,655 out of 1,759 full-power TV stations broadcasting in digital today, according to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Households that have already prepared their analog TVs to receive digital TV offered some encouraging feedback in an NAB poll: Three-quarters of people who have installed a converter box report getting better quality reception. That number will hopefully climb as stations devote full power to digital broadcasts after June 12.

The NAB has also compiled a snapshot of where the nation now stands with regard to DTV, based on Nielsen and Knowledge Networks reports:

70 million TV sets are at risk of losing their signals

19.6 million households receive over-the-air signals exclusively in their homes

14.9 million households have secondary over-the-air TV sets in their bedrooms or kitchens

Demographics of households that get TV reception exclusively over the air: 27.5 percent African American, 31.8 percent Hispanic, 41.5 percent Spanish-speaking homes.

To help such Americans get ready for DTV, the government has been offering $40 coupons toward the purchase of a digital converter box. Here are weekly stats on the NTIA program as of [Update] May 6 13:

Coupons requested: 57,664,191
Coupons mailed: 57,017,569
Coupons expired:21,380,048
Coupons redeemed: 29,019,754
Coupons active: 6,617,767
Average daily orders last 30 days: 63,611

[Photo: ThisIsIt2/Flickr]