DTV Consumer Education Group Gains Steam, Adding FCC
A large and diverse digital TV education group is gaining momentum, adding more than 100 members the past four and a half months and getting the FCC to join, said members. The commission formally joined the Digital Television Transition Coalition several days ago, an agency spokesman said. Formal FCC affiliation makes good on Chairman Kevin Martin’s public promises to collaborate with NTIA, other agencies and private bodies to alert Americans to the Feb. 17, 2009 analog cutoff (CD June 26 p2). On Monday, NTIA Administrator John Kneuer and FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein spoke to about 60 coalition members, according to participants in the meeting at National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) headquarters. Adelstein told the group it has made progress but must do much more because “few Americans really understand” the transition.
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NTIA will pick a vendor to run the agency’s $1.5 billion digital TV converter box coupon program by mid-August, Kneuer said, according to several meeting participants. That task is crucial for getting the closely watched effort off the ground by year-end. It is believed that NTIA has whittled the list of contenders to a handful. NTIA will give out as many as 33.5 million coupons for a $40 discount off a converter box, needed for analog TV sets not connected to cable or satellite to get digital broadcasts. The vendor could make as much as $160 million. “It is definitely encouraging news to know that we will have a vendor shortly,” said Jonathan Collegio, an NAB vice president and Coalition member. “A lot of outreach in regards to the coupon program is effectively held up until we know how the coupon program will function.”
Until coupon details are complete, attendees recalled Kneuer as saying, consumer electronics companies, broadcasters, cable operators and others can raise awareness of digital TV by touting its superiority in sound and picture quality to analog. Kneuer acknowledged the difficulty of consumer education, what with the coupon program still coalescing, audience members said. But that’s no excuse not to educate people, he said. Members are circulating materials among themselves to inform employees about the transition. NAB is distributing information packets to all TV stations in the lobbying group. By year-end, broadcasters will get public service ads (PSAs) from NAB, plus scripts for radio spots, said Collegio.
More than 120 companies and lobbying groups belong to the Coalition, said participants. There were 8 members in late February, when the group began, said Collegio. He credited the Association of Public Television Stations, Consumer Electronics Association, LG Electronics, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and other founding members, along with AARP, for bolstering membership. Having the FCC along helps, too. “It certainly brings a lot of weight to the Coalition and shows to people both inside and out of Washington that DTV is coming and it is an important issue,” said Collegio. Rob Stoddard, NCTA senior vice president of communications and public affairs, said: “The commission, like the rest of us, has a very important stake in the work of the coalition.” In a June 18 letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D- Mich., and Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., Martin said the commission already was working closely with the coalition and anticipated joining. “We plan to coordinate with the Coalition to ensure that all PSAs are produced and distributed in a manner that will best promote consumer awareness,” he wrote.
Adelstein told the coalition that the FCC and NTIA must work “more collaboratively to develop a unified federal message.” The FCC is starting to take digital TV education seriously, after months of pressure, he said. “The Commission is starting to realize that collaboration and coordination with local, state and tribal governments, and consumer organizations, are key,” Adelstein said. “We need to move quickly on finalizing the DTV table of allotments, and I'm pushing to get the item done.”