The end of movies on disc is nigh

Netflix ending its DVD-by-mail service last month was just the latest sign that movies on physical media are going away. And with it goes consumer ownership of physical copies of their favorite movies and TV series.
Going forward, consumers will be left to the whims of streaming video services to decide which movies to carry. Or they’ll be forced to pay for a digital rental or purchase of a movie title, if it’s even available.
Last week, director Christopher Nolan encouraged movie fans to buy a copy of his film “Oppenheimer” on Blu-ray Disc “so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.” (See articles by Variety and IndieWire.)
In addition to Netflix getting out of the DVD business, there have been other signs that the medium has reached its end game.
Retailer Best Buy plans to phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online in early 2024. It wants to use that space for other merchandise. (See articles by Variety and Media Play News.) Other retailers like Walmart and Target also are cutting back on their DVD offerings.
Also, Ingram Entertainment, a leading DVD distributor, announced that it is winding down operations after more than 35 years in business.
The DVD market has been waning for years as consumers have switched to streaming video services for entertainment. But the decline has accelerated recently.
Media pundits have noted that many movies and TV series that were released on DVD are now difficult or impossible to find in any digital format. And that’s a shame for the movie fans and culture as a whole.

Related articles:

Why the Dying DVD Business Could Be Headed for a Resurrection (The Hollywood Reporter; Nov. 10, 2023)

‘Crossroads,’ Britney Spears and the Journey to Watch a DVD in 2023 (New York Times; Oct. 18, 2023)

Where’s the Love? — Is Hollywood Abandoning Disc, Once its Golden Goose, Too Fast? (Media Play News; Sept. 25, 2023)

The DVD’s Demise Leaves Many Films Gone With the Wind (Wall Street Journal; April 27, 2023)

For movie lovers, there’s a darker side to Netflix ending DVD rentals (Washington Post; April 21, 2023)

Photo: DVD collection (Dave Campbell via Creative Commons)

CES 2021 news in review: AMD, Best Buy, Deere, Intel, Microsoft make waves

The following is a roundup of my coverage of the virtual CES 2021 technology trade show.

Caterpillar, Deere flaunt robotic vehicles for mining, farming at CES 2021. (Jan. 14, 2021)

Microsoft sounds alarm about state-sponsored cybersecurity threats. (Jan. 13, 2021)

Electronics retailer Best Buy thrives thanks to hybrid business model. (Jan. 12, 2021)

Chipmaker AMD expects to be in 50% more notebook PC models in 2021. (Jan. 12, 2021)

Intel unleashes flurry of new processors at CES 2021, hopes to change narrative. (Jan. 12, 2021)

8K TVs, see-through displays, home robots debut at CES 2021. (Jan. 11, 2021)

CES 2021: As massive tech show shrinks to a PC screen, will its impact wane? (Jan. 7, 2021)

Photo: The John Deere X-Series combine harvester earned a CES 2021 Innovation Award in the robotics category. Last year, the company’s John Deere 8RX tractor won a CES 2020 Innovation Award. (Deere)

Time to shame McDonald’s, Walgreens and others for their toxic, wasteful paper receipts

I recently learned about the environmental impact of paper retail receipts.
A group called Green America released a report on June 25 about retailers with the best and worst practices regarding sales receipts. Of the 36 companies studied, those that got the best marks offered electronic receipts and phenol-free paper receipts.
Only three retailers in the study got A grades for offering digital receipts and phenol-free paper receipts: Apple, Ben & Jerry’s and Best Buy. The rest fell short, most by a lot.
Green America estimates that U.S. paper receipts consume over 3 million trees and 9 billion gallons of water each year. It said that receipt production generates over 4 billion pounds of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of 450,000 cars on the road) and 302 million pounds of solid waste.
What’s worse, many retailers are using paper coated with toxic chemicals, namely bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS).
Nobody likes receipts. We’ve just gotten used to receiving them. More retailers need to ask consumers if they want or need a receipt before automatically printing one. When I’m asked if I want a receipt, I almost always say no. If there’s an email receipt option, I choose the electronic option. I get receipts emailed to me from Best Buy, Home Depot, Office Depot and small businesses that use Square.
Green America is on the right path with this crusade to get retailers to change their practices. I think Americans can get behind this cause, unlike unpopular moves like banning plastic straws. But I don’t think the group should promote new state or federal laws at this point. Instead, I think it should get companies to change their behavior by shaming them and getting shareholders and customers to push for change.
The group can start with the worst offenders. It gave D ratings to 17 companies. They include pharmacies Walgreens and Rite Aid; grocery chains Safeway and Aldi; restaurants Burger King, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Panda Express, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy’s; and retailers 7-Eleven, Claire’s, Family Dollar, Petco, TJX Companies and Walmart.
Green America’s “Skip the Slip” campaign is a righteous one.

Photo: Skip the Slip graphic by Green America.

What happens when studios stop releasing movies on disc?

I still subscribe to Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service because it offers an unparalleled selection of movies to watch.
Unlike the company’s streaming video service, Netflix’s DVD service offers movies from every major film studio. If it’s available on disc (DVD or Blu-ray), Netflix is likely to carry it, thanks to the first-sale doctrine in U.S. copyright law.
In the streaming sector, movie rights have Balkanized so films are spread out among different subscription video-on-demand services.
The nice thing about Netflix’s DVD service is that it’s the great equalizer. It gets movies from everywhere, regardless of studio. It even gets TV series from HBO, Showtime and others once they’re released on disc.
But Netflix’s DVD service has been steadily losing subscribers, in part because the parent company puts most of its marketing efforts behind streaming.
Lately I’ve been wondering what will happen when studios stop releasing movies on disc.
Major Hollywood blockbusters likely will continue to be available on disc for some time, but smaller budget movies, independent films and foreign films might skip physical media distribution.
Already retailers like Best Buy have reduced the store space they allot for DVDs. Redbox has cut back on the number of kiosks it maintains for renting discs.
The future appears set. Digital streaming via subscriptions will rise while movies for sale or rental on physical media will disappear. I just hope that takes a long time to happen.
When DVDs disappear, so will Netflix’s DVD business. But I intend to stay a subscriber to the bitter end.
Netflix’s DVD service had about 3.3 million subscribers last year. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he could see the service lasting for at least another five years, USA Today reported in March.
Last month, the Netflix DVD business celebrated 20 years of operation. I hope it has many more years ahead of it.
Without DVDs, consumers will have to sort through various streaming options to find the movies they’re looking for or else watch them on a pay-per-view basis.
Film buffs will mourn the loss of such DVD features as deleted scenes, director and actor commentaries and behind-the-scenes videos, which likely will go away when the shift to digital distribution is complete.
Streaming might be a more convenient way to watch movies, but it will be less satisfying when it’s the only option.

A eulogy for music CDs

Music CDs appear to be breathing their last gasp at retail. And they could soon disappear entirely as consumers shift to subscription streaming music services.
Best Buy plans to pull music CDs from its stores by July 1, citing slumping sales and a desire to use that retail space for other items. And Target could follow suit. (See articles by Business Insider and the Los Angeles Times.)
Consumers like the convenience of on-demand streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music. People no longer have to load a compact disc into a CD player to queue up their favorite tunes.
However, the end of CDs is changing the music business in ways other than losing a physical distribution channel.
With digital distribution, artists big and small are on equal footing, battling for attention on streaming services. When CDs were king, artists with major label backing dominated the retail racks and earned consumer mindshare. Packaged media has significant additional costs in manufacturing, shipping and handling that digital distribution does not.
With digital music released online, consumers are starting to feel overwhelmed with all the choices. It likely will be harder for music artists to break through to a large audience. (See Wall Street Journal article subtitled “The sea of music that the industry is producing has both artists and fans feeling submerged.”)
Music fans used to take pride in their physical music collections and were devoted to their favorite performers. But as ownership gives way to subscriptions to all music, there’s bound to be a weaker connection between fans and performers.
Also likely to go away is the notion of albums. With no physical media to fill, artists can release a new track every few weeks instead of once a year.
The decline of CDs also is likely to give more clout to DJ producers. Some artists like Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber now seem to be building their careers as singers for hire for DJs rather than trying to create their own albums.
CDs aren’t going to disappear overnight, but the shift to streaming is clear. Last year, streaming accounted for 65% of recorded music sales in the U.S., up from 51% in 2016 and 34% in 2015.

Photo: Pathetic music CD section at Target store in Reston, Va. (Patrick Seitz)

10 commonplace things that are disappearing

A year ago, I wrote about “10 things doomed to go the way of the dinosaur.”
That list included pennies, business cards, phone books, newspapers and the U.S. Postal Service, among other things.
As I said at the time, some of these things will be stubbornly persistent but the future is clear. It may take many years, but they are destined to fade away. Seriously, why does the U.S. still have pennies and phone books?
Comedian John Oliver joined the movement to eliminate the penny in a funny segment on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” in November.
What follows is a list of 10 commonplace things that are disappearing.

1. Music CDs

Rapper Kanye West recently announced that he no longer plans to put out music on CDs.
Music sales on physical media, including CDs, have been on a long decline. First, digital downloads (Apple iTunes) took a bite out of physical media sales. Now streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) are causing declines in both physical media and digital downloads.
You need look no further than the shrinking CD section at Best Buy stores to see what’s happening to music sales.

2. Autographs

Years ago when people met a celebrity, they’d want to get his or her autograph. Today, selfies are the memento of choice.
Singer Taylor Swift noted in 2014 that autographs became “obsolete” after Apple came out with the first iPhone with a front-facing camera. That was the iPhone 4, released in June 2010.

3. Journalism schools

The declining newspaper industry and resulting job losses have spurred many universities to morph their journalism schools into media and marketing schools. Some universities (such as Emory and the University of Colorado) have dropped their journalism programs.

4. Alarm clocks

In the smartphone age, who needs an alarm clock anymore? It’s certainly a heck of a lot easier to set an alarm on a smartphone than a clock radio.
Smartphones also have replaced separate cameras, GPS navigation devices and other gadgets.

5. Cursive handwriting

Kids aren’t taught cursive handwriting in school anymore. So they have a tough time reading cards and letters sent by their grandparents. Typing is much more important. About the only thing they’ll write in cursive is their signature.

6. Postcards

Postcards are fading away along with letters sent via the U.S. Postal Service. Why send a postcard on vacation when you can instantly send a photo via text or post it on social media?
Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service continues to decline in relevance. (See “The Postal Service Is Delivering Itself Into Bankruptcy, Audit Shows.”)

7. Payphones

The rise of cellphones has done away with the need for payphones and phone booths. New York City is replacing phone booths with free Wi-Fi stations and information kiosks.

8. Appointment books

I’m stubbornly holding on to my weekly at-a-glance schedule book. But a lot of people have switched to online schedules using Microsoft Outlook and other programs. I just like using paper schedule books for writing work and personal notes and appointments. But the tide has clearly turned in favor of electronic calendars.

9. TV Guide magazine

How is TV Guide magazine still around? TV Guide was created at a time when television shows were scheduled. In the on-demand video streaming world, you don’t need a grid schedule of what’s on. Also, with program information available online, a weekly printed magazine seems archaic.

10. Keys

Many cars already have replaced keys with keyless ignition systems. These wireless push-to-start systems use small battery-powered fobs you can leave in your pocket. Smartphones with near-field communication (NFC) technology are starting to replace hotel room keys and cards and could one day be used with cars and home door locks as well.

Photo: Music compact discs. (Photo by Flickr user m01229)

Business cliches are ‘table stakes’

Lately I’ve seen a resurgence of the business cliche “table stakes,” a term used to describe something important to a company.
As a search term on Google, “table stakes” spiked last month. In November, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly described price competitiveness as “table stakes” for the consumer electronics retailer.
Just last week, I saw the term used by an online advertising researcher in an article titled, “Programmatic Is Table Stakes.”
NPR reported in June that the term seemed to be popping up all over the place. It’s one of many gambling terms favored by business executives, along with “double down” and “go all in,” NPR said.

Related article: 

9 Buzzwords That Can Make You Sound Dumb (American Express Open Forum; Nov. 25, 2013)

Photos: Poker chips by Play Among Friends.

Twitter goes public, Zynga CEO steps down and more 2013 tech industry predictions

My roundup of tech industry predictions for 2013 from around the Web continues here with looks at Twitter, Zynga, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.

2013 tech predictions, part three:

1. Twitter will go public.

Microblogging service Twitter will go public in 2013 so it can afford to play in the “verticalization of the Web,” says Howard Lindzon, co-founder and CEO of Stocktwits. Facebook buying Instagram is one example of the trend toward verticalization, he says. Google and Amazon will be other players in the movement.
But as I wrote earlier in the week, Twitter also is seen as an acquisition target by Google in 2013.
Eric Jackson, founder of IronFire Capital, doubts Twitter will go public and could be a potential acquisition for Apple.
Patrick B. Gibson, a staff engineer at Tilde Inc. and former Apple employee, thinks Apple will buy Twitter to get its Web services expertise.
Cnet notes that Twitter has said for some time that it wants to remain an independent company. But if a big enough offer comes around, who knows?

2. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus will be forced out.

In his article “CEOs Who Will Get Fired in 2013,” Rocco Pendola, TheStreet’s director of social media, puts Zynga CEO Mark Pincus at the top of his list in terms of likelihood of getting canned. He said online games company Zynga should fire Pincus and “reassign” him to a role as founder and chief strategy officer.
Second on his list is Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly. His hiring was a “mistake,” Rendola said. “Fire his butt, but be nice in the process.”

3. Facebook will get its mojo back.

Social networking giant Facebook struggled after going public in 2012 as investors grumbled about its slowing growth and lack of mobile strategy. But several analysts think Facebook will shine in 2013.
“The recovery of Facebook” will be a big story in 2013, says Henry Blodget, editor and CEO of Business Insider. “They finally reaccelerate revenue and everybody gets excited about it again. (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg becomes this major league capitalist, which he is starting to show signs of. He’s sick of being humiliated (and called a) communist. That’s out the window.”
Will he put on a suit? “No. He’ll stick with the shirt.” And hoodie.
2013 will be the year of “mobile (advertising) at scale,” said Lucy Jacobs, chief operating officer at Spruce Media. “Mobile launched this year on Facebook and we’ve seen some really strong results on initial testing. I think Facebook is going to dial up the rate of monetization on mobile and advertisers will be able to tap into that channel further.”
Facebook will become “a meaningful ad-scale platform” in 2013, says Antonio Rodriguez, a general partner at Matrix Partners.

4. Google+ shows surprising growth.

Google’s social networking service “Google+ will pick up steam in 2013 and reach a threshold as Facebook’s growth will slow and some of that will be people deciding they can get more done on Google+,” says Marshall Sponder, an independent Web analytics and SEO/SEM specialist.
More people will use Google+ next year because Google is pushing users of its other services to give it a try. And Google+ will get a boost from mainstream media organizations, says Lindsey Cook, a junior journalism and computer science major at the University of Georgia.
“Google+ will continue to rise in newsrooms because of Google’s search algorithm,” she said. “Social media is already integrated into the algorithm. At some newspapers, SEO experts are telling them to have Google+ accounts and to post often. Why? It’s page rank, dummy, and that’s not going to go away.”

5. LinkedIn will go on a buying spree.

Professional networking service LinkedIn will be a “very active acquirer in 2013,” Lindzon says. “I believe they will make a few big acquisitions along with tuck-ins like my 2012 fave Rapportive. My favorite big idea for them remains Angellist.”
LinkedIn will be seen as “the new Facebook” next year, according to Affect, a public relations and social media firm specializing in technology, healthcare and professional services. LinkedIn will become important for companies interested in monitoring conversations about their brands and connecting with customers and influencers. LinkedIn also will be used by more journalists to research and break stories, Affect says.
Ed McMasters, director of marketing and communication at Flottman Company, is equally enthusiastic about LinkedIn’s prospects.
“The future of social media for B2B will be held in the hands of LinkedIn – the new advances of LinkedIn make it a true business-to-business relationship builder … I am a firm believer that LinkedIn will be the social media BIG GUY of the future.”

Two years on Twitter

I signed up for Twitter two years ago Friday.
Since then I’ve posted 2,128 tweets, most of them retweets of interesting news articles.
I haven’t posted many standalone comments on my observations and thoughts. Mostly I’ve just used Twitter as a news feed and to publicize my professional and blog writings.
I recently spent some time sorting through all those tweets looking for representative samples of my standalone comments over the last two years. What follows is a few of them organized by subject.

First tweet

Signing up with Twitter to see what all the fuss is about. (April 22, 2009)

Family observations

Embarrassing parent moment: my kids, 5 and 7, in the car singing along with Rihanna’s song “S&M.” (March 26, 2011)

What song will Enrique Iglesias be singing when he’s old and fat?: “Tonight I’m Loving Food” - joke my son, 7, came up with. (March 18, 2011)

My preschool daughter needed words starting with “i” for school today. She came up with ice cream, iguana, iPhone and iPod. (Nov. 16, 2010)

Watching the Notre Dame football game Sat., I asked my Dad if the ND leprechaun had a name. He suggested Tony. Where’s his sitcom deal? (Oct. 12, 2010)

Just got back from taking my daughter, 4, to the Disney On Ice princess show in Bridgeport, CT. Good father-daughter bonding event. (Jan. 1, 2010)

My son Christopher, 6: “I wish I was Santa Claus.” Why? “Because then I’d only have to work one day a year.” (Dec. 20, 2009)

Daughter is princess. Son is a Star Wars Clone Trooper. For Halloween, of course. (Oct. 31, 2009)

At son’s insistence, tonight watched “Star Wars: Ep. 1: The Phantom Menace.” It was as bad as I remembered. Of course, my son, 6, liked it. (July 6, 2009)

Father’s Day: Watched Empire Strikes Back with my son. Bonded over Darth Vader’s “Let’s rule the universe as father and son” bit. (June 21, 2009)

Logitech’s Harmony One universal remote control simplified my life

I’m tired of being my household’s information technology manager.
Whenever the computers, network, video game systems, TVs and set-top boxes aren’t working right, I’m the one my wife, the kids and nanny turn to for help.
After we moved to Connecticut, we purchased a TV system that was more complex than it should have been. It didn’t help that problems with our Cablevision HD DVR set top box necessitated several visits from technicians who kept screwing the configuration of our AV system’s inputs and outputs.
But even when it was “fixed,” it took too many button pushes on too many remotes (four) to switch from live TV to play a DVD or Blu-ray Disc.
Before a recent trip, I had to type up detailed instructions on how to switch between watching TV and a movie on disc.
I was the only one who could do it from memory. And our living room system isn’t that complex – just an LCD TV, AV receiver, Blu-ray Disc player and cable box.
Thankfully I purchased a Logitech Harmony One universal remote control from Best Buy.
In the past, I balked at buying Harmony remotes because I thought the price was a little much for a non-necessity. The Harmony One lists for $250, but it cost me just $145 on sale. (I also had a $100 Visa gift card to spend and this seemed like a good purchase.)
Knowing what I do now, even at full price, it’s a worthwhile purchase.
The setup is simple. You connect the remote to a PC and the included software walks you through which devices you want to control. It then retrieves software drivers from the company’s database of devices via the Internet. It was a snap.
The Harmony One remote uses activity-based controls. So with the touch of one button on it touch-screen LCD display, I can either “Watch TV” or “Watch a DVD.” Like I said, those tasks would take four remotes and multiple button combinations before.
A year ago, I wrote about some consumer electronics products being marketed as “marriage savers.” Universal remote controls are one such category.
And I can tell you from experience that the Harmony One universal remote has brought more harmony to my marriage.
Now, if only I can clean up my messy home office. Then it would be like a second honeymoon.

Photo: Logitech’s Harmony One universal remote control

Best Buy blue shirts could learn a thing or two from waitresses

I recently had a poor shopping experience at the Best Buy store in Norwalk, Conn., that made me realize that Best Buy’s store employees could learn a thing or two from how waitresses operate.
I waited 30 minutes in the computer products department for someone to assist me in buying some wireless networking gear. There were lots of Best Buy workers – “blue shirts” and Geek Squad – walking around but only two were there to help customers in the computer products department apparently.
The one associate I asked to help me kept promising to assist me, but said he had other customers to assist first. He was nice enough but a half hour is too long to wait to pick out a couple of wireless networking items.
It was a Saturday and the store was understaffed in that department for the volume of customers there.
It seemed to me that associates were spending too much time with customers who needed a lot of handholding buying laptop computers.
Now I’m not some computer dummy who needs a lot of help buying tech products. I was simply looking for some new wireless gear using the 802.11n standard. I was upgrading from the older wireless G standard to the new wireless N standard to share a broadband Internet connection with other computers and devices in my house.
Another problem with this particular Best Buy store was that pricing information was missing from the shelves containing the products I was interested in. (Netgear RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Router and Netgear wireless N adapters.)
Buying computer equipment shouldn’t be like buying a car. When you go to an auto dealership, you get one salesman who stays with you the whole time.
Best Buy associates should take their cue from waitresses.
In restaurants, waitresses don’t take orders from one table, come back with the food and settle the bill before moving on to another table. They work multiple tables and customers simultaneously. They keep multiple plates spinning, to use another metaphor.
Best Buy should train their associates to identify customers who are doing research or those who need a lot of assistance from others who are ready to pull the trigger and make a purchase. It’s like triage to use yet another analogy.
When customers are clueless about notebook computers, for example, the sales associate can give them some information to mull over and tell them they’ll be right back after helping someone else. The associate can narrow their selection to a certain class of notebooks (desktop replacements, multimedia and gaming notebooks, value laptops, netbooks, etc.) and then say something like, “Why don’t you think about that for a bit while I help another customer? I’ll be back in a few minutes, OK?”
To use one last analogy, Best Buy blue shirts should be like honeybees, pollinating many plants.

Waitress photo by Candacy Taylor, author of the new book “Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress” (2009). Pictured is Sondra from the Butter Cream Bakery & Diner in Napa, Calif. Visit the Taylor Made website and buy the book at Amazon.com.

Millions of Americans too lazy to bother with digital TV transition

President Barack Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing to delay the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasts from Feb. 17 to June 12 because too many Americans aren’t ready for the switch.
Consumers have had three years to get ready. How much time do they need?
President George W. Bush signed the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act into law on Feb. 8, 2006. It set Feb. 17, 2009, as the last day for analog TV broadcasts.
The transition stumbled recently when the Commerce Department ran out of funding for coupons to help people buy converter boxes for their old analog TVs. Fixing the funding issue is a better idea than delaying the switch by four months.
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been distributing coupons to consumers since Jan. 1, 2008. Households have been able to request two $40 coupons to buy set-top converter boxes. The boxes typically cost $50 to $60, so a consumer’s out-of-pocket expense per box is $10 to $20 after using the coupon. You can only use one coupon per box. The boxes are available at Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Wal-Mart and elsewhere.
Most households get cable or satellite TV, so they don’t need the special converter boxes. Only homes that rely on antennas, such as “rabbit ears,” to get programming over the air on analog sets need converter boxes.
The Feb. 17 cutoff date for analog broadcasts has been widely publicized for over a year. It would be hard to miss the frequent public service spots on TV and the media coverage of the issue.
The NTIA, which supports sticking to the original deadline, says awareness of the digital TV transition is at nearly 97% now. The other 3% presumably think Ronald Reagan is still president.
Politicians should not bow to the lazy and stupid by moving the analog cutoff date. The federal tax filing deadline is well known, but you don’t see a move to delay it because of a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys.
With the digital TV transition, lawmakers are worried about upsetting voters whose screens might go blank next month. When they can’t watch “American Idol,” they’re going to be royally ticked.
Republicans in the House and Senate have raised concerns that a delay would confuse consumers, create added costs for TV stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals, and burden wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting for spectrum that will be freed up by the switch.
To date, only 53% of coupons distributed have been redeemed. The NTIA has mailed 46.5 million coupons. Of those, 14 million expired and were unused. More than 11.7 million coupons are still active.
On Jan. 4, the full $1.34 billion available for coupons became fully obligated. About 1.2 million households are now on a waiting list for coupons, the NTIA says.
The Nielsen Company reported Jan. 22 that more than 6.5 million U.S. households – or 5.7% of all homes – are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting. Still, that’s an improvement of more than 1.3 million homes since Nielsen reported readiness status at the end of December.