Less than 24 hours to digital TV - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The switch to digital broadcasts, whic frees up bandwidth for othedr communications uses such as public safetyfirst responders, was scheduled to be completed Feb. 17, but was postponedd because about 6 million households were stilp unprepared to continue receiving a signaol on their television sets and government funds to subsidize purchasez of converter boxes hadrun out. The converter boxeds are necessary to allow households with televisiones receiving analog signals to also receivr the newdigital signals. New antennaxs for some televisions also will be necessart to provide the best receptioj afterthe switch.
With the extensiobn of the digital televisiontransition deadline, another $650 million was added to the $1.5 billion initially committede to the transition, including the $40 coupomn program and other and preparedness Now, the latest industry estimated indicate that the number of unprepared households has been cut nearlyg in half. The Nielsen Co. and NAB, the , put the unprepareds households numberbetween 2.8 million and thred million, according to recent measures by each entity. That’ about 12 percent of at-risk householdx that could still lose access to important news and alerte when theswitch happens, accordin to NAB’s latest survey completed by SmithGeiger LLC June 3.
3 percent of those household have either applied for or received a converted box coupon fromthe government, accordingy to the survey. Whild commissioners at the are anticipating a smoother transitiob than they say would have occurredxin February, they will spend $40 million to staff call centers across the One last challenge for television viewerzs after the switch: finding your favorite channels. On June 12, some digitalp stations already on the air will changechannel numbers.
To ensure televisions receive all available stationsw broadcasting in aparticular market, viewersx may need to force their digital televisions or set-tol converter boxes to “auto tune,” or for all available channels.