We've seen it popping up occasionally in mainstream news, but even the 16 months' forewarning remaining doesn't soften the blow for analog television watchers. But that won't stop Congress from pounding boob tube watchers with a huge televised advertisement blitz next year.The National Association of Broadcasters announced plans Monday to launch a $697 million public awareness ad campaign alerting current "analogers" that the Federal Communications Commission is upconverting all broadcast signals to digital come February 17, 2009, according to Associated Press.
Congress is meanwhile pitching in $5 million toward publicizing the soon-to-be ubiquitous ad campaigns, yet although this number isn't exactly a groundbreaking collaborative effort, their real generosity is $1.5 billion in consumer coupons so homeowners won't be left, well, signalless when broadcasters convert. $40 in discount coupons will be given to every individual still watching analog TV (i.e. over antenna and not with a cable or satellite company) so they can buy digital-analog converter boxes. According to the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit promoting technological research awareness, each DTV converter runs $80 to $100; thankfully, consumers can apply for up to two $40 vouchers.
In addition to on-air public announcements, NAB will devote over $327 million to news coverage; a "DTV Road Show featuring TV-shaped trucks touting the transition; banner ads on Web sites; and 30-minute shows about the transition," according to a Broadcasting & Cable magazine article. (As an aside, this is shaping up to be the most intensely coordinated ad campaign ever conceived for television - and it's necessary, too.)A 2005 Government Accountabiliy Office study concluded that roughly 19 percent out of 108.5 million U.S. households (about 21 million folks with 70 million sets) watch TV via airwaves, pointing out that the elderly trend toward this method. Wow, not surprising.
Also not surprising: The switch-over most strongly affects the poor and minorities, which represent a great majority of the 21 million "analogers," according to Scientific American magazine.
The NAB also added that 95 broadcasting companies pledged to run the digital TV ad spots during prime time, a bread-and-butter nightly block where millions of ad revenue per commerical are gained. Of course, sacrificing every broadcaster's cash cow may seem an unhealthy agreement now, but chew on this: no public awareness at all is just plain foolhardy - should a multi-billion dollar conglomerate broadcasters have a vested interest in forfeiting ad revenue now, or should they stand to lose 21 million ignorant analog viewers instead? Gee, it boggles the noggin...Here's one video advertisement slated to run as part of NAB's ad campaign blitz.
Images Courtesy DTV Answers, www.textually.org
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