Viewers who get their television programs free, over-the-air and without a converter box will find themselves without service Friday, when the federally mandated transition to an all-digital broadcast spectrum becomes final.

Those households -- Nielsen Co. estimates about 2.8 million homes still aren't ready for the transition, while the National Association of Broadcasters says it's more like 2.1 million -- will then become the focus of a scramble by broadcast stations, cable operators, satellite providers, telecommunications companies, retailers and policymakers to get them back to watching TV.

The affected households are likely concentrated in low-income, older and rural demographics. The market least ready, according to Nielsen, is Albuquerque-Santa Fe, where 7.6% of the households remain unready.

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