41% of US consumers think all TVs need a digital converter

Consumer Reports found that about 17% of Americans living in television households have at least one television set that will be affected by the digital transition, and 13% rely exclusively on over-the-air signals (OTA). Unless they take some action before February, nearly 19 mln Americans will be in households without television programming. While 93% of Americans indicated they are aware of the digital transition, consumers are still unclear about how the transition will affect them. 32% of consumers in households with at least one TV affected remain unaware they need to take action, and more than one quarter (28%) of those who will not have any functioning TV sets in their home next February do not know that they are affected by the transition.

About four in 10 consumers (41%) believe that ALL televisions will need a converter box to function properly. 29% believe that all households will need digital televisions to watch TV. 25% believe that every consumer must subscribe to cable, satellite or fiber TV to watch any television programming at all. 9% believe consumers will have to throw away all analog television sets.