It’s February 17th, D-Day for the transition to all-digital broadcasting. Or at least, D-Day #1. Most stations aren’t making the switch today because of the government-ordered delay until June 12th. However, 421 stations are moving forward as originally planned. On top of the 220 stations that have already transitioned, that comes out to 36% of stations nationwide that will have dropped analog signals by midnight tonight.
The DTV transition is all a bit confusing for consumers, but we’ll have a better sense of just what the impact looks like when reports start rolling in tomorrow. Drop a comment here if you have any anecdotes. I’ll also be looking for information on whether cablecos and telcos see any subscriber increases as a result of the transition. Anyone you know using analog armageddon as an excuse finally to upgrade to pay-TV service?
Filed under: DTV
Shuld have left it at 2/17. I still think that most people still will not switch by 6/12.
[...] Transition Adds to Pay-TV Subscriber Numbers Posted on July 7, 2009 by Mari Silbey One of my questions leading up to the broadcast digital TV transition was how many OTA TV watchers would make the jump [...]