Study: 9.2M Homes May Face Digital TV Outages
Centris says New York and Boston are at the greatest risk.
By Swanni
On February 17, 2009, all full-powered local broadcasters must switch their analog signals to digital which means viewers will need a Digital TV, a digital converter box or a pay TV subscription to watch television.
The transition is expected to mostly impact viewers who get their signals over-the-air via antennas because cable and satellite providers will provide set-top solutions.
But in a new report released today, Centris says that of the 17 million households that receive over-the-air signals, 54 percent are located "in challenging reception areas."
The research firm says "challenging reception" means that a viewer would receive only four or fewer broadcast TV stations if they used a small or medium omidirectional rooftop antenna or an indoor antenna.
The top 10 cities cited by Centris as having the strongest chance of digital outages are:
1. New York
2. Boston (Manchester)
3. Philadelphia
4. Los Angeles
5. Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
6. Seattle-Tacoma
7. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
8. Minneapolis-St. Paul
9. Atlanta
10. Cleveland-Akron (Canton)
"We have completed an analysis of the entire country to identify where in each market the receptivity gaps exist and now have exact figures for the number of at-risk households down to individual census block groups," says David Klein, Centris' executive vice president. "The statistics suggest that digital TV signal coverage will be significantly more limited than currently anticipated and further reinforce the need for industry and
consumer education on this issue."
Centris says many homes will have to upgrade their antennas if they expect to watch TV when the transition occurs.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has challenged a previous claim by Centris that millions of homes are at risk of losing TV signals next year.
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