New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group has found that 14% of primary US residences with at least one TV set do not subscribe to cable, DBS, or any other type of multi-channel video service.
In addition, 24% of households that subscribe to a multi-channel video service have at least one TV set that only receives broadcast programming.
In total, 34% of all US households are at risk of losing broadcast reception to at least one TV set as a result of the forthcoming digital switchover (which should be completed by March 2009) if no action is taken.
These findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,601 randomly selected households from throughout the United States and are part of a new LRG study, Cable, DBS & Telcos: Competing for Customers 2008.
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said: “General awareness of the digital transition has significantly increased in the past year, but many still need to better understand the implications of the transition.
“Even among those who have heard of the transition, a large percentage of at-risk households, namely non-multi-channel video subscribers and multi-channel video subscribers with broadcast-only TV sets, seem to be oblivious to the potential impact of the transition on the TV sets in their household.”
Ofcom’s digital television update, for the Q4 2007, showed that there were 524,500 net UK household conversions to digital television (DTT), following 361,700 additions in the previous quarter (see 524,000 UK Households Went Digital In Q4 2007).
A report from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service found that worldwide sales of digital TV set-top boxes broke through the 100 million barrier for the first time in 2007 (see Popularity Of Digital TV Reaches Record High).
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