Not all Latinos sold on digital TV

With the United States’ switch from analog to digital television less than a year away, marketing research firm Nielsen thinks more needs to be done

With the United States’ switch from analog to digital television less than a year away, marketing research firm Nielsen thinks more needs to be done to keep ratings for television shows from missing their marks when the conversion occurs Feb. 17. Nielsen estimates televisions in 13 million homes, or about one in 10 households, get their TV signals over the air and would lose access to most signals if the transition occurred today. The news gets worse among Latinos. Nielsen estimates 17.3 percent of Hispanic households would be unable to get digital TV signals without converter boxes. Further, 26.2 percent of Hispanic homes have at least one television that can receive digital signals but have others that don’t. A National Association of Broadcasters spokeswoman says her group is ready. It prepared digital television transition spots in Spanish and other languages starting late last year. Data and anecdotes collected indicate Latinos and other consumers are plugged into the pending switch. Univision premiered their spots in October, making it the first major broadcaster to do so. The network claims to be Latinos’ No. 1 source for news, but our perspective is that they are once again confusing language and ethnicity; in Arizona, the vast majority of Latinos get their news in English, the language they use most. The question is, will English-language networks realize that Latinos must also be reached in English? For more, www2.acnielsen.com and www.nab.org.