Best Buy Inc.’s chief executive said Tuesday that he is “very nervous” about being able to supply customers with the millions of digital TV converter boxes needed ahead of the shutdown of most analog TV transmissions in 13 months.

“I think it’s one of the biggest risks our industry has,” vice chairman and CEO Brad Anderson told an industry audience at the universal Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Full-power television stations will turn off their analog signal on Feb.

17, 2009, after which they will broadcast in digital only. Viewers who receive their signals through an antenna instead of cable or satellite and don’t have a digital-ready TV will have to buy a converter.

The Nielsen Co. estimates that 14.3 million households rely on over-the-air television broadcasts for programming. Still others have sets that receive analog broadcasts as a complement to cable, satellite or digital sets in the same household.

“The […]

Orginal post by Top Tech News