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Why are the residents of top Texas markets so stupid?

R

Rick Rose 2.0

Guest
New information from AC Nielsen shows that Texas's top 4 TV markets are among the worst markets in America when it comes to being prepared for DTV. Houston is 9.59% unprepared, 2nd worse of the top 56 markets. Dallas Fort Worth is 9.02 unprepared, 4th worse of the top 56 markets. Austin is 7.85 unprepared, 5th worse of the top 56 markets. San Antonio is 6.05 unprepared, the 14th worse of the top 56 markets. We have been bombarded in this country on our TV stations for at least 2 years to get ready and Texas seems to want to live the dark ages of TV.
 
1. Most people are not proactive. They won't do something about the problem until it's too late, then find someone else to blame.

2. At last check, the government ran out of funding for the $40 vouchers to get DTV boxes. The cards they did hand out expired Dec 31, 2008.

3. Those boxes, in nearly every case, are not indeed FREE. $40 makes a great down payment, but many stores are gouging the prices up to $60+, with the consumer, of course, paying the difference. There might actually be a few folks who were bankrupted with Christmas purchases/job loss/foreclosure who just didn't have the extra $$$ to spare. Or maybe it's the lower-income people who can't afford cable, anyway.

Also of note, the City of Dallas had a 'throw away your analog TV' event a couple of weeks back at Reunion Arena. I assume there was no charge for disposal. Now Mesquite's doing one, but wanting YOU to pay $10 each for THEM to dispose of your set. Last time I checked, my 1988 GE 25" color console and my 1996 off-brand 19" color set were working just fine, and will continue to work with an HD box...why the hell would I want to trash either? I don't have $400+ laying around to do a "proper" upgrade, and damned if I'm going to pay for cable when I'm seldom home to watch it.

I will, however, take donations. :)
 
Is that total percent of households not prepared counting only those that receive TV via terrestrial over-the-air since those are the folks that will actually need to do something, or are they counting the total TV viewers whether terrestrial satellite or cable in a given market? Some areas of the country have more cable subs, others like DFW have more OTA viewers. Cable viewers won't have to do anything. That could skew the numbers in the cable areas favor as far as being prepared.
 
I still saying have 90+ percent prepared is a good thing.
We'd love 100% but it will never happen.
Same thing would happen if we tried to move all the radio listeners to FM.
There would be some diehards holding on to their AM only transistor radios.
 
I reject the basic title of this thread. I think most people living in Texas are quite smart.
Can you explain how Nielsen determined what percentage are "not ready?" In theory, they should have some estimate of the number of homes that have just an analog TV with no pay service and no converter box. The reality is that Neilsen is guessing based on bad data.
Nielsen doesn't even really have a good handle on how many people are watching high definition programming. Based on that, I don't expect them to have the DTV conversion number correct.

I hope most Texas stations flip off the analog transmitters in February. Don't wait for June. Some people won't be ready, but we won't really know how many until the switch is made.
 
I wonder what percentage of Americans are not ready for retirement, either? ;)
 
kenglish said:
I wonder what percentage of Americans are not ready for retirement, either? ;)
Click to expand...

That number is probably larger than it was in August 2007.

Back to the topic at hand - I have AT&T U-Verse, I do not have a converter box for OTA DTV, so does that make me part of the 9 percent or so in D/FW that are "not prepared"?

I think that number is just a guess on Nielsen's part.
 
Dan Dennis said:
kenglish said:
I wonder what percentage of Americans are not ready for retirement, either? ;)
Click to expand...

That number is probably larger than it was in August 2007.

Back to the topic at hand - I have AT&T U-Verse, I do not have a converter box for OTA DTV, so does that make me part of the 9 percent or so in D/FW that are "not prepared"?

I think that number is just a guess on Nielsen's part.
Click to expand...

If you have AT&T U-Verse, you don't need a thing. Any TV hooked up to that service will be just fine. If you have an analog TV that gets pictures by antenna, you'll need a converter box for that set only.
 
I always say the dumbest question is the one not asked, but in this case the thread starter obviously does not understand the makeup of these markets and makes ignorant assumptions. I'll just speak for Houston as that is what I know best. Houston has and still is one of the lowest cable/satellite penetrated markets in the country. While many large (top 40) markets went over 80% cable/sat penetration in the 90's, Houston hovered firmly around 60% and today that number is not much higher. I know Texas markets in general have lower cable/sat penetration than the rest of the country. Much of that centers around the hispanic makeup of the state. Cable penetration among Hispanic Households has traditionally been lower than general market because of the overall lack of Spanish language cable nets. Most of these nets have over the air stations in all the Texas markets that air their programming. With over-the-air carrying much of what is on Spanish language cable nets there is a lower demand for cable. Hence you have a large percentage of TV Households relying on analog signalling so why would you be surprised that Texas rates so low on readiness for DTV conversion.

Think before you vommit rubbish on how dumb Texans are.
 
tested said:
I reject the basic title of this thread. I think most people living in Texas are quite smart.
Can you explain how Nielsen determined what percentage are "not ready?" In theory, they should have some estimate of the number of homes that have just an analog TV with no pay service and no converter box. The reality is that Neilsen is guessing based on bad data.
Nielsen doesn't even really have a good handle on how many people are watching high definition programming. Based on that, I don't expect them to have the DTV conversion number correct.

I hope most Texas stations flip off the analog transmitters in February. Don't wait for June. Some people won't be ready, but we won't really know how many until the switch is made.
Click to expand...

http://www.cbs19.tv/Global/story.asp?S=9829727

KYTX in Tyler is one station out of 500 across the country that are going to be going ahead with the 2/17 shutoff date. Meanwhile, everyone else in Tyler is staying on analog for now.

Personally, I've been ready since 2006 for this transition. I bought my first SDTV with its first ATSC tuner in 2006. And for Christmas, I recieved an HDTV. (Since I'm planning on moving in the next few months...I'm going to hang onto my other TV as a backup.)

People just decided to wait....they played around....and now it's coming back to bite them in the a--.
The DTV transition has just been one big problem after another....and people are now paying the price for it.
 
adguy said:
I always say the dumbest question is the one not asked, but in this case the thread starter obviously does not understand the makeup of these markets and makes ignorant assumptions. I'll just speak for Houston as that is what I know best. Houston has and still is one of the lowest cable/satellite penetrated markets in the country. While many large (top 40) markets went over 80% cable/sat penetration in the 90's, Houston hovered firmly around 60% and today that number is not much higher. I know Texas markets in general have lower cable/sat penetration than the rest of the country. Much of that centers around the hispanic makeup of the state. Cable penetration among Hispanic Households has traditionally been lower than general market because of the overall lack of Spanish language cable nets. Most of these nets have over the air stations in all the Texas markets that air their programming. With over-the-air carrying much of what is on Spanish language cable nets there is a lower demand for cable. Hence you have a large percentage of TV Households relying on analog signalling so why would you be surprised that Texas rates so low on readiness for DTV conversion.

Think before you vommit rubbish on how dumb Texans are.
Click to expand...

I think you hit the nail on the head. "Not being ready for DTV" is not equivalant to being "stupid." There are many other reasons why folks might not be ready; in addition to the ones you explained, simple poverty is a factor. Texas has a higher poverty rate than the national average, poor folks can't afford cable/sat, and without the govt. coupons, even a $50 converter box can be a burden.
 
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