Millions Left Behind as TV Goes Digital

Confusion over the nationwide switch to digital TV signals caused many to miss the (second) deadline on June 12. Many others bought new TVs

By Joel Schectman and Esmé E. Deprez

As Pedro Ortez and his wife, Wanda, watched Law and Order on Thursday night, they knew that soon after the program finished their screen would fade to static. The TV, which for years had served as the low-income couple's primary source of news and entertainment, turned into an inert box in the center of their apartment on June 12, when broadcasters stopped sending analog television signals and switched completely to digital. "Television is one of those few small pleasures in life," said Ortez, an unemployed 40-year-old custodian from the Bronx, N.Y. "It keeps us connected to the outside world."

The Ortezes are hardly alone. Despite converter-box subsidies from the federal government, community outreach by local activists, and a blitz of ad campaigns by media companies from Comcast (CMCSA) and Cablevision (CVC) to CBS (CBS) and NBC (GE), millions of people across the country are expected to be left without working TVs this weekend. Those affected are people who get programming over the air and lack digital TVs or antennas that can pick up digital signals when analog signals are discontinued. (No one who pays for television service from cable or satellite operators is affected.) As of June 7, Nielsen estimated that 2.8 million households—2.5% of the national TV market—were unprepared for the final switch.

That is a substantially smaller group than would have been affected if the digital transition had taken place in February, as originally planned. Congress and the Obama Administration delayed the switch to give broadcasters and the public more time to prepare. Nielsen estimated that twice as many people would have been without television had the transition proceeded at that time.

Confusion over the Digital TV Switch

Some activists have argued that the digital transition should have been pushed back even further. But the case of the Ortezes illustrates how likely it was that some stragglers would have seen their screens turn to static no matter when the deadline came.

While the Ortezes had heard about the transition to digital television, they didn't think they could do much about it. They thought they needed to pay for cable to get digital service. "We are on public assistance and we really can't afford to get cable," says Ortez. "I didn't know, until I saw last week in the newspaper, that I could get one of those boxes."

The couple was also confused by the delay in the transition. They thought the government decision to postpone meant they didn't need to take action. "We had heard that the whole thing got canceled back in January," says Ortez. "We didn't realize they were still going to do it until last week."

Activists and community leaders say the elderly, the disabled, and low-income families such as the Ortezes are most at risk of being left out. "People who fit the guidelines for Medicaid and food stamps—those making less than $11,000 a year—many of them don't really understand the analog-digital [distinction]," says Gwen Lawson, founder of KeepYourSignal, a Bronx-based organization that has tried to educate local residents about the switchover.

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