Southern California is home to the major TV producers and studios, but when it comes to getting ready for Friday's transition to all-digital broadcasts, we're among the nation's top slackers.
The Los Angeles region has more than 250,000 TV households still not ready for the transition and is the sixth least prepared of Nielsen's 56 viewing regions, according to statistics released Wednesday by the ratings company.
If these viewers with older analog TVs don't install converter boxes -- or get cable or satellite service -- their sets will no longer be able to show programming from most of the nation's over-the-air broadcast stations.
"What these people will get on many stations is just a blue screen," said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who has been doing several public appearances to warn the unprepared.
Nationally, 2.8 million homes aren't set for the TV signal change; that group skews younger, African American and Latino.
"I think it has to do with income," said Nielsen Senior Vice President Steve McGowan.
Getting a digital TV can cost at least several hundred dollars, and a subscription to cable or satellite services usually costs $45 a month or more.
The cheapest alternative by far is a converter box at a one-time charge of about $40 and up, and that can be offset by a government coupon that subsidizes much of the cost.
Coupon requests have been running to about 100,000 a day, according to the Commerce Department. Local electronics stores also said interest in the boxes had greatly increased as the deadline loomed.
"We know there are a lot of people out there who wait until the last minute to file income tax, study for an exam," Locke said. "This is the same kind of thing."
Viewers in the 18-to-34 age range probably are less aware of the coming change or just don't care because they rely less on television for entertainment.
"There is a direct correlation with age and the amount of time spent watching TV," McGowan said.
Devon Dunlap, 24, of Studio City works in the television industry but hadn't realized that the transition was coming until she saw a public service announcement during the Los Angeles Lakers NBA finals game Tuesday night.
"I'm not actually a big television watcher," said Dunlap, who works in postproduction on reality TV shows.
She hasn't decided what she's going to do about her soon-to-be-blank TV, a pre-digital Panasonic that was passed down through her family. ("It's very boxy and probably about as old as I am.")
