jonathan collegio
TRANSCRIPT
Digital Television (DTV) Transition Campaign Overview
DTV Transition
American DTV Transition Basics Original transition date: February 17, 2009 Obama Administration delayed date to June
12, 2009, but 421 stations transitioned on original date
Broadcasters spent over $5 billion updating infrastructure
Most stations (93%) already broadcasted in digital at time of transition
DTV Transition
DTV Transition Basics Spectrum loss – 700 mhz band
• Auctioned for commercial, wireless use • Allocated to “public safety” uses
Most TV stations simulcasting in both analog and digital during transition • Legislation allocated extra “simulcast” channels for
digital broadcasts • After transition, analog broadcasts disappeared
DTV Transition
DTV Transition Basics Upside: Viewers Benefit
• Crystal clear pictures and sound • More channels through multicasting • High-definition (HD) broadcasting available in all U.S.
media markets
Downside: Upgrade requires action • Viewers must take action to upgrade, or will lose
reception
DTV Transition
Consumer Options Purchase a new TV set with a digital tuner
• All new TV sets have digital “ATSC” tuners • Cost: $99-up (some DTV sets are not HD or flat screen)
Purchase a digital-analog converter box • Cost: $40-70 • Available an 20,000+ retailers nationwide • Federal government provided $40 coupons
Subscribe to multi-channel service • Cable, satellite or telephone company (fiber optic) TV service
Some consumers may need to upgrade antennas
DTV Transition Consumer Education Campaign Audience
Broadcast Household Universe 17% (19.6m) of American households are exclusively OTA 14% (14.9m) households have some antenna TV sets 31% (34.5m) of American households have at least some OTA
Disproportionately Affected Groups Seniors Minorities Low Income Rural Areas
DTV Awareness
General awareness fully saturated at 98% by April
DTV Transition
U.S. Government Actors U.S. Department of Commerce/National
Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) • Oversee $1.5 billion coupon program and marketing
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) • Chief regulator, focus on consumer education and
broadcaster mandates • Ran DTV phone call center
DTV Transition
Government Resources Dedicated U.S. Department of Commerce: $1.5 billion
• Coupon program, outreach FCC: $25 million
• Consumer outreach • Public Relations • Phone center
“Stimulus” legislation • $650 million for coupons, outreach
DTV Transition
Industry Resources Dedicated Television Broadcasters: $1.2 billion
• Television spots, crawls, snipes, programming • Grassroots efforts • Voluntary efforts
Cable Industry: $200 million • Public Service Announcements • Marketing efforts
DTV Transition
Coupon Program Basics Part of 2005 DTV Transition law $1.5 billion allocated to coupons to help viewers
upgrade $40 coupon toward purchase of government-certified
converter boxes Certified boxes are basic
• No DVD players, special features
Two coupons allocated per household
DTV Transition
DTV Transition
Retailer Participation Retailers must be certified to participate in
program, to avoid fraud 20,000+ retail locations selling boxes with
coupons Includes 8 of 10 top retailers, including Best
Buy, Circuit City, Sears, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Radio Shack, Target
DTV Transition
Coupon Statistics Coupons Requested: 64.1 million Coupons Redeemed: 34.5 million Redemption Rate: 55.0% Average Daily Orders: YTD 108,000 Retailers/Locations: 28,000+ Phone/Online Retailers: 8/22 Government-certified converter boxes: 191
DTV Transition
Converter Box Coupon Problem Coupons have 90 day expiration Redemption rate is 55% Government must account for all outstanding coupons
as spent funds – even though all would not be redeemed
The government cannot issue more coupons until unused coupons expire
Waitlist created 1/5/09 Talks to delay transition date began on 1/8/09
DTV Transition
Date Delay Wait list: Millions of viewers would not get
coupons before transition date President-elect Obama (1/8/09): DTV Transition
date must be delayed Congress: Debated date change until 2/4/09;
passed date change
DTV Transition
Date Delay Complications Law allowed stations flexibility to go on 2/17
schedule if they chose • Many had to transition due to transmission tower
leases, equipment sales, etc. 421 stations chose to go digital on 2/17 Result: Smooth transition
• 12.4m over the air households in affected markets • 50,000 calls to FCC – mostly on re-scanning
DTV Transition June 12, 2009
Consumer awareness: 98%+ Unaided Date Awareness: 66%
• Tax Day Date Awareness: 58%
Consumer readiness: 88% of OTA • 3% have take some action (have coupon) • 9% have taken no action • 2.1 million unready as of last Friday (25% have coupons)
Campaign reached point where remaining households refused action
DTV Preparedness
DTV Transition Results
DTV Transition Results Consumer side went well
Only 1-1.5 million out of 20 million affected households did not take action
Some technical issues Stations broadcasting in low-VHF spectrum had issues
reaching viewers in digital • Some requested power expansions from FCC • Some power expansions interfered with other stations • Many had to help consumers purchase better antennas
How did we get there?
Broadcast TV Industry’s Consumer Education Campaign Airwaves News and PR Grassroots initiatives
Outreach: DTV Action Spots On-Air Campaign
Spots • 16 spots per week per station required by FCC • Spots by NAB, cable industry, local stations
Programming • 30 minute program required as long-form information • Produced by NAB, local station versions
Crawls, Snipes Analog “shut-off” tests
• Stations simulate analog shutoffs during programming to demonstrate what will happen. (Note that these tests are not perfect).
NAB created industry plan; FCC made NAB’s plan the “baseline” for station action
DTV Public Relations
Media Outreach 19,000 contacts with reporters Over 17,000 stories generated Reporter briefings and demonstrations:
• New York • Chicago • Silicon Valley • Washington DC • Various state capitals
Good PR is key to calming anxiety among lawmakers and educating consumers in-depth
DTV Web Outreach
Online While only half of broadcast-only households
had Internet at home, still a key to distributing in-depth information
• DTVAnswers.com • DTV.gov • DTVTransition.org • Antennaweb.org • LPTVAnswers.com • Facebook.com
DTV Transition
Grassroots Initiatives DTV Transition Coalition
• 241 organizations DTV Speakers Bureau
• 1000+ speakers, 8300+ speeches DTV Road Show Church Outreach Local Government toolkits to 10,000+ officials
Outreach: DTV Road Show
600 Events Nationwide
DTV Trekker stop in Laredo, Texas
Central Challenges
Antennas maximize reception… But in some cases, are necessary to upgrade
• Problem: VHF-UHF issue • Problem: Changing signal contours
Re-scanning is crucial • Many channels changing in the broadcast spectrum • Viewers must re-scan to get all the channels available
Some stations changed coverage areas • When signal contours change, viewers must be alerted • Difficult to communicate to viewers
Key Lessons
1. Synthesize government efforts In U.S., two government agencies were tasked with
different goals, held different leaders, and communicated poorly. Best to have all government operations under one roof.
2. Coordinate messaging NAB’s DTV Transition Coalition of 241 organizations
got all parties using the same message, instead of different messages from different industries.
Key Lessons 3. Don’t schedule Transition after an
election U.S. DTV transition scheduled one month after new
president took office. Bush and Obama had different priorities, and government change created leadership transitions at tops of government agencies.
4. Coordinate initiatives among major actors Example: Broadcasters took lead on consumer
education, so commercials by government agencies were unnecessary. Avoid duplicate initiatives.
Key lessons
5. Engineers must communicate Crucial for broadcast, cable, and satellite
engineers to coordinate with one another. Periodic conference calls are important.
6. Phone Center is crucial Make sure some party (government, cable,
broadcasters) is coordinating a robust call center to answer viewer questions.
Key Lessons
7. Some viewers will need help Some viewers will need more than financial
assistance to upgrade; for example, some older viewers may not be able to connect the box or move a TV set. Plans should be made by private industry and government to help these viewers, but also to avoid any fraudulent activities.