Digital Television DTV

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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DTV Awareness
Awareness jumps to 91 nationally
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DTV Transition Awareness

• NAB Survey
• Fielded May 2008
• State by state data currently being analyzed
• News releases on state-by-state awareness coming
  out in the next two weeks
• NAB will distribute awareness data to our primary
  station contacts list
• Goal Distribute important info to stations while
  creating news about the transition

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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Government Actors

• NTIA
• 15,302,839 coupon applications received from
  8,077,114 households
• 2,346,855 coupons redeemed
• 184,583 coupons expired
• Average daily order 103,398 coupons per day
• 86 converter boxes certified, 20 with analog pass
  through
• Retail certifications closed last retailers
  trickling in

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Government Actors

• Most coupon applications
• Texas 1,414,131 21 OTA 1,715,000 OTA
  households
• California 1,431,621 16.5 1,990,900
• Michigan 678,354 14.5 566,100
• Pennsylvania 683,704 9.6 465,840
• Illinois 819,666 17.1 801,940
• Ohio 702,918 15.9 720,800
• Florida 718,185 8.9 637,410
• New York 676,413 9.5 668,330
• Indiana 476,793 18.6 453,380
• Missouri 437,479 20.9 478,030
• (as of 5/30) Numbers available by state and zip
  at ntiadtv.com/coupon_stats.cfm

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Government Actors

• NTIA
• Coupon Distribution
• NTIA began taking orders Jan. 1 started
  distributing coupons on 2/17/08
• Two weeks to process applications additionally,
  working through a backlog
• With coupons, consumers get list of local
  retailers, web retailers, and catalogs accepting
  the coupon
• Coupons expire 90 days after delivery of coupon
• Consumers cannot re-apply for coupons yet

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Government Actors

• NTIA
• Certifications Boxes
• 86 DTV converter boxes are certified for purchase
  with coupon
• EchoStar box retails for 39.99 (Coupon is 40)
• 20 boxes have analog pass-through option
• Boxes certified for coupons cannot have analog
  tuners
• See www.ntiadtv.gov for updated lists of boxes

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Government Actors

• NTIA
• Certifications Retailers
• 1,735 retailers, representing over 19,100 stores
  are participating in coupon program
• Includes leading retailers Best Buy, Circuit
  City, Wal-Mart, Sams Club, Radio Shack
• New retailers Sears Target
• No new retailers can enter program (March 31
  deadline)

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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Challenge Low Power

• Low power stations remain in analog
• Issue Boxes without analog pass through option
  block analog signals
• Low power stations community broadcasters,
  Class A, translators stay in analog stations
  across border in analog
• Extremely complicated message for low-power
  viewers community broadcasters and translators
• Low power message can and will confuse full-power
  viewers if disseminated widely
• NAB concerned with translator issue

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Challenge Low Power

• Solutions
• NAB crafted plan to educate consumers on DTV
• Market identification Complete
• Web site www.LPTVanswers.com provides info for
  consumers
• National retailer outreach Complete
• Local station meetings Ongoing
• Local retailer outreach Ongoing
• DTV Speakers Bureau activation Complete
• LPTV Action Spots Complete distributed in
  April

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Challenge Antennas

• Antennas maximize reception
• But in some cases, are necessary to upgrade
• Problem 1295 stations relocating to a channel
  different than their NTSC channel many across
  bands
• UHF antennas cant pick up low VHF, and vice
  versa
• Stations moving from UHF to VHF, or from VHF to
  UHF, need to talk about antennas
• Problem Digital cliff effect
• Solution Antenna spots in next round of DTV
  action spots
• Solution Talk about antennas in newscasts
• Solution Multidirectional antennas like these

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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Best Practices

• Station Analog Shut-Off Tests
• Simulating digital-only during newscasts
• KVBC-TV (NBC) in Las Vegas and KGMB-TV (CBS) in
  Honolulu
• Market-wide tests
• Orlando, FL on June 25th
• 11 stations, excluding Fox affiliate
• 1 minute shutoff test at 759 p.m.
• 2 more tests before the end of the year
• Omaha, NE in planning stages

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Best Practices

• KVBC-TV Case Study
• Pulling the Plug
• Station simulated analog shut-off during several
  of its newscasts on May 2nd
• Viewers saw cable getting pulled in control room
• Used static graphic with DTV phone number and
  website
• Crawl with DTV Answers logo and information

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Best Practices

• On the Phone
• Lisa Howfield
• General Manager
• KVBC-TV (NBC)
• Las Vegas

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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Industry and Consumers

• DTV Transition Coalition
• 232 members, up from eight last year
• Industry, consumer, grassroots organizations
• Monthly meetings at NAB are national forum of
  DTV issues
• Organizations have pledge to distribute DTV
  materials to their membership
• State-level coalitions in early stages in Nevada,
  Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Maine
• Mailed DTV information to all state public
  utility commissions

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Outreach DTV Action Spots

• DTV Action Spots
• Six spots released thus far
• Fed by satellite (Re-fed on 4/4)
• Scripts available at www.dtvanswers.com/actionsp
  ots
• State associations instrumental in getting word
  out about spots
• 30 minute educational TV program
• Focus A-Z of DTV transition, with special focus
  on converter boxes
• Shot and distributed in SD, HD, English, Spanish
• Fed by satellite in mid-March
• Format/timing sheet available at
  www.dtvanswers.com/formats

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Outreach DTV Toolkits

• DTV Toolkits
• With help of SBAs, DTV toolkits were sent to
  educate elected officials at the federal, state
  and local levels
• Sample speeches, op-eds, press releases
• PowerPoint presentation
• Web banner ads
• Background info sheet
• Talking points
• Marketing collateral
• Flash countdown clock

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Outreach DTV Toolkits

• Toolkits sent to
• All 535 members of Congress
• Governors, Lt. Governors, Secs of State
• 7600 state legislators
• Mayors of 200 largest big cities
• State aging agency directors
• State municipal association executive directors
• State county association executive directors
• Working with National League of Cities to
  distribute e-kits to municipal officials
• Next step E-kits to state legislators and local
  officials

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Outreach Media Relations

• Media outreach
• Launching weekly email to reporters with updates
  about DTV transition, coupon program and NAB
  campaign
• Electronic press kit sent to reporters nationwide
• 19,000 contacts with reporters since early 2007
• Over 7,500 stories generated, with increasing
  frequency, in all 50 states
• Reporter briefings New York, Chicago, Silicon
  Valley, Washington D.C.
• Facilitating media briefings with state
  broadcaster associations in 50 state capitals

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Outreach Online

• DTVAnswers.com
• Launched in March 2007
• Best consumer Web site on DTV
• Link to, or use copy for station Web sites
• Banner ads to promote site available at
  www.dtvanswers.com/toolkit
• Station tools available at www.dtvanswers.com/memb
  ertools

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Outreach DTV Road Show

• 600
• Events
• Nationwide
• First Step
• We Contact
• State Assns

DTV Trekker stop at NBC 4 Fitness Expo in
Washington, DC
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Outreach DTV Road Show

• How NAB promotes DTV Trekker
• News Alerts
• Phone contact with news desks of stations,
  newspaper reporters
• E-mail alert to GM of stations in market
• E-mail from NAB to group executive
• State broadcaster associations notified
• Participation by local broadcasters maximizes
  events

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Outreach DTV Road Show

• Recent Visits
• OK Assoc. of Broadcasters (Oklahoma City)
• Phoenix, AZ
• San Antonio, TX
• New York, NY
• Upcoming Visits
• Memphis, TN (6/12)
• San Diego, CA (6/13)
• Detroit, MI (6/20)
• Minnesota (Late August)

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Outreach Speakers Bureau

• DTV Speakers Bureau
• Purpose Utilize industrys grassroots and
  personnel resources as a ground campaign to
  compliment air campaign of spots and news
  coverage
• Goal 8,000 speaking engagements
• Audiences Rotary clubs, Kiwanis clubs,
  retirement centers, manufacturing plants,
  schools, etc.

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Outreach Speakers Bureau

• DTV Speakers Bureau
• 1,091 speakers registered thus far from 665
  stations and broadcaster associations
• 3200 engagements booked
• 1720 engagements completed
• Average audience 128 (Goal is 125)

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Outreach NAB to Stations

• NAB Station Outreach
• Webcasts
• First webcast December 5, 2007
• Second webcast January 31, 2008
• Third webcast April 4, 2008
• Schedule Every 6-8 weeks
• Webcasts archived at www.dtvanswers.com/webcasts

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Outreach NAB to Stations

• Resources
• All station tools available at
• www.dtvanswers.com/membertools
• DTV Style Guide and Messaging Toolkit
• Graphic elements available for stations
  www.dtvanswers.com/graphicelements
• Station Checklist www.dtvanswers.com/checklist
• Cheat Sheet to handle viewer phone calls
• Sample op-ed on DTV Transition
• Teaser copy for station news stories
  www.dtvanswers.com/teasercopy
• Sample crawls for stations www.dtvanswers.com/cra
  wlscopy

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Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign
Overview
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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Four commercial TV stations WWAY (ABC), WILM
  (CBS), WECT (NBC) and WSFX (Fox) go exclusively
  digital September 8, 2008 at 12pm
• Public station, WUNJ, not participating cites
  concerns over emergency weather
• Other low power stations not participating

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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Challenges
• Wilmington Awareness 89 aware that TV is going
  digital, but
• 31 believe it is happening February 17, 2009
• 19 believe it is happening September 8, 2008
• A lot of unlearning to do

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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Other challenges
• 66 of viewers in Wilmington view programming
  originating outside of the market
• CBS station (WILM) is low power and does not
  reach entire DMA
• Public station WUNJ is promoting February date
• Confusion These viewers will see PSAs promoting
  two different transition dates

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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Other Challenges
• Network, syndicated spots Networks and
  syndicators are running national spots promoting
  a February 17, 2009 transition all of which
  must be blocked by stations
• Vacation Homes Thousands of vacation homes may
  have antennas, but homeowners may not be there to
  upgrade before September 8

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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Broadcasters taking action
• Public Service Announcements
• Four commercial stations have produced their own
  Wilmington spots
• NAB is producing Wilmington versions of our
  national spots
• NAB working with radio stations to promote
  transition
• Extensive news coverage of transition

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DTV Transition

• Wilmington Experiment
• Web site NAB purchased www.DTVWilmington.com for
  stations to educate viewers
• Grassroots
• DTV Speakers Bureau Eight broadcasters trained
  to speak at local venues
• National Black Church Initiative in Wilmington
• DTV Trekker Road Show to visit Wilmington full
  two weeks before switch
• Stations are contacting retailers, property
  managers

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DTV Transition

• 258 Days Left!