WASHINGTON - About 87 percent of Hawai'i's TV households are aware of the nationwide switch to digital TV that will occur on Feb. 17 next year, according to a new survey released today by the National Association of Broadcasters.

The survey, conducted March 29 through May 23 by Smith-Geiger LLC, also found that people in 30 percent of the state's households knew the correct date when over-the-air TV stations will switch their broadcast signals and programming from analog to an all-digital format.

About 70 percent of the state's respondents also recalled seeing TV messages about the transition to digital-only broadcasting, according to the survey of 400 TV households in the state.

Across the country, consumer awareness of the transition to digital TV is nearly universal at 90 percent, according to a survey conducted earlier this year, said Shermaze Ingram, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

About 25,000 homes in Hawai`i — about 5.5 percent of the state's TV households — rely solely on over-the-air television, which means they watch TV for free using rabbit-ear or rooftop antennas. The remaining 94.5 percent have either cable or satellite TV service, which will be unaffected by the change.

Unless people receiving only over-the-air broadcasts take steps, they could be without TV once the switch takes place.

To make the transition to digital, viewers can buy a new digital television set or purchase cable or satellite television service. But the lowest-cost way to make the transition may be to buy a converter box that attaches between the antenna and the TV set and will change the digital signals back to analog so the older TVs can display them.