NEW YORK: Nielsen said today that 200,000 homes have upgraded to digital television in the last two weeks. In the month following the June 12 government-mandated digital TV transition, more than 1 million households have made the switch. This most recent improvement leaves 1.5 million American households, or 1.3 percent, unable to receive digital television signals through the week ending July 12.

The figures come in with just two more weeks left in the federal government’s digital-to-analog converter subsidy program. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is managing the program offering $40 coupons good toward the converters, which allow legacy analog TV sets to decode digital transmissions. As of yesterday, the NTIA had mailed nearly 63 million coupons to households among the 34.2 million approved for up to two each. More than 33.3 million had been redeemed, and 25 million had exceeded their 90-day expiration date. Applications will be taken through July 31, as long as the program has funds.
-- Deborah D. McAdams

More TVB DTV transition coverage:
July 1, 2009: “More Stragglers Make the Transition”
Another 400,000 homes made the digital transition over the last week, according to the latest Nielsen numbers. Since the June 12 switch to digital television, Nielsen more than 800,000 homes have tuned into DTV. The total number of TV-less homes now stands at 1.7 million, or 1.5 percent of U.S. homes.

June 24, 2009: “U.S. Households With No TV Now Number 2.1 Million”
Over the weekend following the June 12 transition to all-digital broadcasting, Nielsen estimated that around 2.5 million households went without TV. The firm said the total, representing around 2.2 percent of the nation’s TV households, had been completely unprepared for the final switch too all-digital broadcasting. Around 970 of the nation’s 1,800 or so TV stations ceased broadcasting in analog Friday, June 12.