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Obama finishes second to Reagan in Nielsens, but …
Barack Obama took second place to Ronald Reagan among American viewers watching Tuesday’s inauguration.
In the just-released Nielsen ratings for U.S. households, President Obama drew 37.8 million viewers. In 1981, President Reagan racked up 41.8 million viewers.
But Tuesday’s rating does not include worldwide viewership, which is expected to be massive for the current prez, and it does not include all the prime-time specials later in the day.
The Live plus same-day total (that’s folks who watched the events live and those who recorded the goings-on and watched that evening) reflects viewing of 17 broadcast and cable networks between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Central Time.
The ratings do not include the new rush of viewers to various Web sites, which reported heavy traffic.
The broadcast networks will release their prime-time national ratings later, and a rough estimate of the worldwide audience likely will be known by early next week.
DTV switch postponed?
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee was scheduled to act Wednesday to postpone the Feb. 17 digital TV conversion until June. But the committee decided to postpone the postponement — and mull the implications of the delay requested by the Senate.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat from West Virginia, introduced legislation a couple of weeks ago to shift the date to June 12, because the government-sponsored program to help viewers purchase analog converters boxes had run out of funds.
But Senate Republicans blocked that measure, arguing that the current deadline has been promoted for months, and confusion would be the main result of waiting.
Democrats and the Obama administration want the 2 million people who still don’t have access to converter boxes to be served before all analog signals are cut off.
Bottom line: There’s going to be confusion no matter when the switch happens. But at least providing $40 coupons to those on the converter-box waiting list might level the playing field.
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By austinights
January 27, 2009 9:48 AM | Link to this
Obama is just another political hack. People who actually think he is going to make a huge difference need to wake up and do something for themselves. Real change happens when you take action on your own - not wait around for an elected politician to promise to make it happen. Americans don't need a leader - we need Americans to lead themselves into the right direction. Stop listening to the sound bites and take action. Then you will see real change!