Who's affected?

If you use an antenna to watch TV on a set that has an analog tuner – and don't subscribe to cable, satellite or other pay TV service – you will need to upgrade to digital television by June 12, 2009.

At least 19.6 million households receive over-the-air signals exclusively in their homes, and 14.9 million households have secondary over-the-air TV sets in their bedrooms or kitchens. Overall, nearly 70 million television sets are at risk of losing their signals.

Consumers have three options to continue getting television reception:

Purchase a DTV converter box for your existing TV set
Purchase a TV set with a built-in digital tuner
Subscribe to cable, satellite or other pay TV service, if that carrier offers the local broadcast stations you want

Note that the transition only applies to full-power TV stations. Some low-power stations will remain in analog, so you may need specific equipment to watch analog and digital broadcasting after the transition. "Pass-through" converter boxes allow your TV set to receive both analog and digital signals. To learn more about low-power television and to find out if the stations you watch are low-power, click here.