Immediately prior to the analog shut off, 3% of all people viewing English-language national broadcast networks came from unready sets. This change in channel position created challenges in household receivability, since homes with “digital” antennas-which were only capable of receiving UHF signals-were not able to receive VHF digital signals and homes could not receive these channels without performing a re-scan of their converter boxes.Īudience loss from unready set tuning was higher for Spanish-Language broadcast networks than for English-language networks. Stations that changed channel positions from UHF (ultra high frequency) to VHF (very high frequency) were more impacted, showing a 13% share decline. It is likely that the stations lost some audience from these partially-unready homes as well. Additionally, 13% of the prior audience to these stations came from homes with at least one unready set and one ready set.

Half of that decline is attributed to a loss of tuning from homes that were completely unready for the digital transition. In total, TV stations that transitioned to digital only experienced an 8% share decline immediately following the analog shut-off. TV stations that transitioned to digital only experienced an 8% share decline… Audience impact And unready homes were less than half as likely to be over 55 years as the audience in Total U.S.

statistics, where roughly one-third of consumers make up this age cohort. More than half of viewers from completely unready households were under the age of 35-a stark comparison to Total U.S. Surprisingly, the age profile of unready homes skewed younger than Total U.S. The location of these sets corresponds to the fact that they were used less for television viewing. Unready sets were typically found in rooms that are not focal points of television viewing, such as secondary bedrooms, kitchens and other locations. And in the week leading up to the analog shut off, almost 60% of unready sets had no television tuning at all. Unready sets were viewed 1.5 hours a day on average, while ready sets were viewed 5.1 hours per day.

Television sets that were not ready for the digital transition were viewed about one-third of the time compared to ready sets. In general, unready homes represented just 1–2% of total television tuning before the June 12th transition. Unready homes represented just 1–2% of total television tuning… Unready and hardly used

Analog to digital converter box