Results: Nielsen reports on DTV transition and its effects

Nielsen has a new report out on how many dealt with the oft-reported DTV transition that occured a few months ago. According to their numbers, many went out and just got a digital converter box, but 18% did just go ahead and get cable, and over 7% got satellite. It seems programming providers were the big winners in this transition.

Over 74% just got a plain converter box, a surprising number, but not a total shock given the fact many people that didn’t have cable already didn’t want it really, DTV changeover or not.

Also noteworthy: stations lost up to 8% of their viewership instantly after the transition, with some being hit harder than others.

Check out the chart and the full report here.

Penetration is Good (No Pun Intended): At least 1 HDTV now in 33% of US homes

Acceptance of HD as a medium is steadily on the rise, and now Nielsen has official figures that back up that theory: Over 33% of homes in the US now have at least 1 HDTV in it, and over 28% receive HD programming regularly. Over the holiday season, the figure was 23%, so that’s a pretty big jump.

Whatever the reason for the jump, we’re happy indeed. There’s still too big a gap between those that own HDTVs and receive HDTV broadcasts, but that can be bridged with education and an improvement in the economic climate.

How many TVs on average does the HDTV owner own? That number is 3 (its sort of assumed if you own an HDTV, you watch a fair bit of TV).  Plenty of other fun figures on the subject here.