Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is broadening its consumer education initiatives this week with a variety of new efforts to help Americans prepare for the switch to digital television. On Monday, February 11, NAB's DTV speakers bureau launched a nationwide speaking blitz to mark the one-year countdown to the digital television transition. Broadcasters in all 50 states are participating in a series of DTV education speaking engagements that are taking place at local community venues nationwide.

"Broadcasters are leading the way to educate consumers about the digital television (DTV) transition," said David K. Rehr, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters. "Every broadcast network and nearly 1,500 television stations nationwide are participating in a massive, multifaceted campaign that includes educational television spots, local speaking engagements and a variety of other educational initiatives."

To help consumers learn more about converter boxes and the federal government's converter box coupon program, NAB has produced new television spots that will be airing on television stations nationwide beginning next week. NAB is also producing a 30-minute educational program about the transition to digital television that will air on stations later this month.

NAB's DTV road show, which includes two trucks designed to resemble giant analog television sets, is another grassroots initiative that is helping consumers to get ready for the transition to digital.The "DTV Trekker" trucks have been crisscrossing the nation since last fall, and will travel 95,000 miles to over 600 locations in 200 markets before February 17, 2009, when all full-power television stations are required to begin broadcasting exclusively in the digital format.

The National Association of Broadcasters' digital-TV-education road show, featuring its giant TV "Trekker" truck. The road show is part of a broader education campaign and features a pair of staffers hosting informational kiosks, passing out literature and helping to explain what steps viewers need to take to "upgrade to digital" -- or downgrade to analog -- "before it's too late."

The road show also includes kiosks that provide demonstrations of the difference between analog and digital signals, educational literature and fun games consumers can play to win prizes. Two DTV-team members will travel with the road show to answer questions consumers may have about the transition to digital television.

According to a recent survey released by NAB, 79 percent of Americans have "seen, read or heard something about the February 17, 2009 transition to digital television." Awareness was even greater among exclusively over-the-air households, where 83 per cent of respondents reported that they are aware of the transition.

"Broadcasters' DTV consumer education initiatives are clearly working," said Rehr. "But there is more to be done, and television broadcasters are committed to ensuring that every American is ready for the switch to digital."

DTVAnswers.com is the official Web site of the National Association of Broadcasters' digital television (DTV) transition campaign. Launched in January 2007, the DTV campaign’s mission is to ensure that no consumer is left unprepared, due to lack of information, for the February 17, 2009, federally-mandated transition from analog to digital broadcasting.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the commercial broadcasters’ lobby, have promised $700 million worth of advertising devoting time to public service announcements (PSAs) about the DTV transition. Supposedly, the NAB has gone beyond, to make as a goal “98 billion impressions as part of its campaign, amounting to 300 impressions per person in the U.S.”

There are some problems with this campaign: Of the six tactics articulated by the NAB to raise public awareness, five don’t use the broadcast TV medium itself and are instead cheap measures like establishing a speaker bureau, making Spanish-English websites, and setting up a mobile truck resembling a large-sized TV.

The NAB’s tactic involving TV is using PSAs. But as a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation learned, PSAs run most often in the overnight hours (midnight to 6am) and only 13% of PSAs actually run during the most-widely-watched primetime hours between 8pm and 11pm.

And many of the PSAs which have aired tend to imply that the burden of action falls predominantly on the viewer or consumer. And the suggested action mentioned is to encourage the viewer to visit a website (not an option for the poor on the other side of the digital divide) or call a phone number (not an option for non-English speakers).

And the efforts to raise public awareness, which all sides agree are succeeding however sporadically, might be failing in raising public knowledge. A January 2008 survey by Consumers Union found “an awful lot of faulty information” among the public about the DTV transition. Even the vaunted government converter box voucher program was unknown by 73% of those surveyed who actually planned to get a converter box.

Perhaps most stunning of all, another survey by the Consumer Electronics Association said that 22% of analog TV owners plan to “do nothing” when the conversion occurs.

DTV Policy by Rolling Dice

To quote FCC Commissioner Copps again: “We’re going to pull the [DTV conversion] switch and pray to the Lord that everything works out fine.” Copps also said: “Pulling the switch on stations all across the land at one and the same time in February 2009 is going to be a real throw of the dice.”

In rolling the DTV policy dice, we might just get lucky and everything will end up fine. But signs strongly suggest that there aren’t many winning rolls left, and the dice seem to be increasingly loaded against the public
Image Credits: FCC DTV Michael Copps NAB Trekker