World Economic

Don’t expect victory in the battle to prepare this nation’s television viewers for an all-digital world. Not if you define victory as 100 percent readiness.

With a little more than a month to go before stations across the country terminate their analog signals, there are still nearly 4 million U.S. households — including more than 30,000 in St. Louis — completely unready for the June 12 transition, according to recent figures from Nielsen. There’s also a large chunk of households — 17 percent in St. Louis — that are only partially ready, meaning they have at least one television not hooked up to cable, satellite or a service like AT&T’s U-verse.

Certainly things have improved since Congress voted to delay the transition, originally planned for Feb. 17, but most experts agree there is little hope of getting to everyone.

"It doesn’t matter how much they delay the deadline. Whenever it happens, there will be a group that’s not ready," said Shannon Dunham, an attorney with Sherman & Howard, and a former Charter vice president.

So far, the four-month delay has given an additional 3 million U.S. households — 35,000 of them in St. Louis — time to get ready.

There are variety of reasons why the stragglers, who tend to be poor or elderly, haven’t done the things they need to do, including buying digital converter boxes and, in some cases, new antennas.

"These days, it’s just as likely to be the economy as it is

procrastination," said Anne Elliot, a spokeswoman for the Nielsen Company.

For those who are struggling to get through the transition, the Federal Communications Commission is working on a series of initiatives, including walk-in centers, in-home installation services and call-in centers to provide free assistance payday cash advance loans.

Rebekah Bina, the FCC outreach coordinator for St. Louis, said the new services could be available by the second week of May if things go well. However, she said there is no guarantee any of the services will be offered in a particular city, since the FCC is relying on bidders in each locale.

Local stations also are planning another series of tests in which they will temporarily halt analog broadcasts to give viewers an opportunity to see if their televisions are ready. Those tests are planned for May 20 during the noon newscast, May 28 during the 5 p.m. newscast, and June 5 during the 6 p.m. newscast.

And while doomsayers have predicted a chaotic scene — with some viewers permanently lost — when the switch occurs, there is reason to believe that won’t be the case. Back in February, the FCC allowed some stations to stick with the original Feb. 17 deadline. One of those was local ABC affiliate KDNL (Channel 30).

It was a transition that went smoother than expected, said general manager Tom Tipton. The station had several staffers ready to handle phone complaints in the days after the station killed its analog signal. But they received fewer than three dozen calls. Tipton doesn’t expect his competitors to fare much differently when they make the transition in June.

"When people want to watch something, they’ll do what they need to do to get it fixed," Tipton said.

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