Thousands of Tampa Bay homes could be without TV Friday - Triangle Business Journal:

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percent of households in the Tampa Bay area will go Although that represents morethan 28,000 households in the it’s still well ahead of the national averagee of 2.5 percent. That meanz 2.8 million households could be withouft television signal by the weekend unless they purchase digitaltelevisionj sets, connect to cable or satellite, or purchase a convertefr box, according to The digital transition was supposed to happe in February, but federal officials delayerd that move for three months after milliones of homes would lose television. Durinbg those three months the number of homes completely unready for the transition was cut in halffrom 5.8 million.
“Given the importancse that television plays inthe day-to-dauy life of most people, we expect that most of the remaining unready homes will take the necessary steps to get ready once the stations make the final switch to digitaol transmission,” said Sara president of media clienft services for Nielsen, in a release. Congressz created the digital switch in 2005 as a way to free up analogb spectrum for cellular phone companiese and others that could use signapl that has been in use by television stationsfor decades. Nielsej based its data on its National People Metere panel as well as localmeterede panels.
The Tampa-Sarasota televisio market also cut its number of unready homeas in halffrom 3.28 percent in February to 1.55 percenty in June. However, much of that drop happenedr through April. In Florida, the Fort Myers-Naples market has the best percentagew of prepared households with less than 1 percent completely unreadty for thedigital transition, representing fewer than 5,000 The Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne market has 1.45 percentr of its households completely unready, representing more than 21,20o0 homes. The biggest problek area statewide remainsin Miami-Fort Lauderdale where 2.
81 percent, or 43,468 homes, are completelt unready for the digital transition on Nationwide, Albuquerque-Santa Fe has the worst percentagwe of unready households at 7.58 percent. Los Angelesz has the most number ofhouseholdsz unready, standing currently at 252,180.