67,000 Atlanta-area households won’t get DTV

In 13 days, more than 67,000 greater Atlanta-area households will have TV sets that no longer pick up programs, according to a consumer advocacy group.

Feb. 17 is the date television stations across the U.S. are scheduled to switch to exclusively digital broadcasts. Viewers who rely on antennas without digital converter boxes will lose their signals.

The Nielsen Co. estimates that 6.5 million households without cable or satellite service do not have digital converters for their analog TV sets.

“There are about 67,300 households in the Atlanta media market that are completely unprepared for the transition,” Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst with the Yonkers, N.Y.-based advocacy group Consumers Union. said during a telephone press conference Tuesday.

Kelsey said the affected Atlanta viewers account for about 3 percent of the media market — roughly half the 5.7 percent of viewers nationwide Nielsen says don’t have digital TV. The Atlanta market covers much of north Georgia, including metro Atlanta.

Consumers Union and other groups are urging Congress to delay the nationwide analog-to-digital broadcast conversion, in part, because there are millions of viewers still waiting for government-funded $40 coupons to buy converter boxes.

Consumer advocates argue that the “Digital Transition,” as it is known, could put lower income, disabled and elderly people without digital TV at risk because they would no longer be able to receive emergency broadcasts in a disaster.

The U.S. House of Representatives last week voted down legislation that would postpone the conversion. The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a compromise version passed by the Senate that would delay the transition until June 12.