DTV Adoption Now Above 99% in US

As of August 30, 2009, 99.4 percent of US homes are able to receive digital television signals. This is a gain of more than 572,000 homes in the last month and 1.8 million homes since the week of the June 12 digital television transition. As of August 30, only 710,000 homes were unable to receive digital signals. Among the 56 local markets that Nielsen measures with electronic meters, four markets - Providence-New Bedford, New York, Nashville and Louisville - are completely ready, and 44 markets have less than 1% of TV households completely unready. Las Vegas has overtaken Albuquerque-Santa Fe as the market with the highest percentage of homes (2.2%) that cannot receive digital signals from high-powered U.S. television stations. The markets with the most unready households tend to be in the Western United States, where cable penetration is lower. Also, some viewers in border states continue to receive signals from Mexico and Canada, while other stations in large geographic markets or areas with mountainous topography can continue using analog "translators."