NAB OUTLINES DTV AWARENESS CAMPAIGN FOR FCC

Acknowledging that consumer awareness of the DTV transition is “lagging,”  NAB Joint Board Chairman Jack Sander outlined in an open letter to the FCC what the trade association is doing to inform Americans that their old TV sets will not be able to receive over-the-air analog broadcasts after Feb. 17, 2009.

On the date, TV stations must switch off their analog signals and go digital only. As part of the transition, TV stations have been simultaneously broadcasting on analog and digital channels for the past several years.

“More than 60 percent of Americans surveyed are completely unaware that the transition is taking place,” the Sander letter says.

NAB’s awareness campaign, similar to a political campaign, is aimed at the nearly 20 million homes that still rely exclusively on over-the-air reception for their TV service and 14.7 million others that have some have some TV sets connected to cable or satellite and some that pull signals off air, the letter says.

Under the direction of a dedicated five-man staff, the NAB campaign comprises:

• Briefing reporters in New York, Chicago, San Jose and Washington and facilitating reporter briefings elsewhere.
  
  
• Maintaining a Web site with information on the transition—www.dtvanswers.com.
  
  
• Planning advertising buys and offering CE retailers point-of-purchase consumer guides.
  
  
• Offering stations a multifaceted PSA campaign, including spots, crawls and a half-hour program and graphics. (An NAB spokesman said the first of the PSAs will go in December.)
  
  
• Establishing a DTV Speakers Bureau with the expectation of arranging 8,000 engagements around the country.
  
  
• Providing information “toolkits” that lawmakers can use to inform their constituents.