WABC TV N Y kWABC-TV New York

DTV Transition

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WABC-TV and the New York Market

#1 TV k t i th t• #1 TV market in the country• 29 counties spread over four states• 7 5 million homes and more than 20 million people• 7.5 million homes and more than 20 million people• #1 station in New York and the most-watched

TV station in the entire country

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WABC-TV Platforms

WABC TV Ch l 7• WABC-TV Channel 7

• Live Well HD

• Accuweather Channel

• 7online.com

• 7togo.com

• Taxi TVTaxi TV

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WABC-TV DTV History

Th i f l t di it l b i• The conversion from analog to digital began prior to 2000

• WABC began digital broadcasting from WTC in g g gAugust 2001

• After 9/11, analog and digital transmission facilities had to be constructed at thefacilities had to be constructed at theEmpire State Building

• WABC was assigned channel 45 by the FCC for DTV• During the FCC’s final channel selection process,

WABC requested shifting our digital broadcasting to Channel 7

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Channel 7

WABC DTV on Channel 7

Ch l 7 d t b b t h i t• Channel 7 appeared to be best choice to serve our over-the-air viewers:

• We traditionally have delivered clear, y ,reliable signals to our viewers on Channel 7

• Viewers would be able to reuse existing antennas• Preliminary overnight over the air tests delivered

reliable signals to test receive locations• Complications with Channel 7 still remainedComplications with Channel 7 still remained

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WABC DTV Marketing Efforts

R d il P bli S i A t d l• Ran daily Public Service Announcements and crawls

• DTV information on 7online.com

• Town Hall Meetings

• Eyewitness News Inserts

• News Specials

• Phone Bank

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2/17/2009/ / 009

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6/12/20096/ / 009

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DTV Transition 6/12/09

WABC it h d t di it l l b d ti t• WABC switched to digital only broadcasting at 12:30pm on June 12th

• Thousands of phone calls received that weekendp• Converter box issues• Confusion over rescanning• Wrong antenna• VHF problems

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WABC-TV DTV Call Center

O 7 11 30 F id S t d d S d• Open 7am-11:30pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

• 45 Employees manned phone bank

• Volume was heavy and steady entire weekend

• Average length of call = 22 minutes

• Total call volume approached 8,500

• Majority of calls came from 718 & 917 area codesj y

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NYC Metro Area Code Map

1111

WABC-TV New YorkData Collected From Callers 6/12-6/14/09

76%

19%

Antenna/Reception Converter Coupon Questions Other Reasons for Call

3% 2%

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Issues Box/Rescanning Issues

Ongoing DTV Reception Issues

FCC l i f t f VHF DTV t ti• FCC planning factors for VHF DTV stations were based on using a rooftop outdoor antenna

• Viewer phone calls and field tests pointed to the

Th i l th t i l t i th h b ildi

p pfollowing factors affecting VHF DTV reception:

• Many indoor antennas were sold as “DTV Ready”• The signal that is lost passing through building

walls to reach indoor antennas was never accounted for

• Negative effect of electronic noise from electronic devices and appliances on reception indoors

• Place holder

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• Place holder

Current Status

C t 11 69kW• Current power – 11.69kW• More transmitter power is required• Request filed with the FCC on June 26th to increase

• The FCC has yet to act on this request, due to concerns

• Request filed with the FCC on June 26th to increase our transmitted power from 11.69 kW to 27 kW

about interference to Channel 8 NJN’s WNJB• New Jersey Network also operates three other DTV

stations with overlapping coverage of NJstations with overlapping coverage of NJ• WABC has approached WNJB with the concept of a

mutual power increaseWABC ti t i 100 DTV ll

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• WABC continues to receive over 100 DTV calls per week

Nielsen NY Market DTV Readiness

CompletelyUnready

PartiallyUnready

Oct 1st 2008 3 54 5 64Oct 1 2008 3.54 5.64Feb 1st 2009 1.72 4.91Jun 1st 2009 1.30 4.62Jun 15th 2009 0.90 3.90Aug 1st 2009 0.00 2.89

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“No viewer left behind”

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WABC-TVWABC-TV

N Y kNew York

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