DTV Outreach Must Target Many Venues, FCC Panelists Say
Government, broadcasters and civil rights bodies must speak to TV viewers in varied forums to ready minorities and the poor for the digital transition, participants said Tuesday at an FCC workshop. Voluntary industry education efforts may have to suffice for now, given uncertainty over FCC authority to require broadcasters to air public service announcements on the transition, Commissioner Robert McDowell said in an interview. That concern has kept some commissioners from voting for a draft order by Chairman Kevin Martin that would stipulate what broadcasters and pay-TV companies have to do to educate viewers (CD Dec 4 p6).
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“Right now I detect a lot of energy” being expended by industry to do its part, McDowell said. Broadcasters are making sure people “understand exactly what they have to do. If that’s not happening, then the commission can” consider stepping in, he added. Whether the agency has authority from Congress to mandate PSAs is “a question we are examining now.”
Officials from offices and bureaus throughout the FCC have spoken about the transition at 250 events this year, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Cathy Seidel said in an interview. Most of the events occurred outside the Washington, D.C., area, she said. By year-end the figure will approach 300, she added.
Employees of NBC Telemundo stations will visit county fairs, fiestas, concerts and other events to alert Spanish speakers to digital TV, Senior Counsel Victor Cabral said at the FCC workshop. “There are a lot of community events where they gather, and if you have the information available in booths at those kind of community events, it’s a necessary component to hearing it on TV or radio,” he said. “We need to continue to educate the front line people at our stations, because they are going to continue to be key to educating the population.” The company is telling its general managers about the importance of community events for DTV education, he said.
Youngsters are a key target for DTV outreach, said Cabral and other panelists. Youths can inform parents, relatives and others who don’t speak English that they need to upgrade their sets or buy converter boxes to get TV on analog sets. “Go to the kids,” said Lisa Malone, vice president of the National Urban League Policy Institute. “Empower youth to learn this, help their parents, their grandparents [and] elderly folks who do not have grandchildren or families.” Ministers and other clerics are a good way to reach African-Americans, said Daniel Wilson, executive director of policy for the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged. Spiritual leaders carry great weight among African-Americans, he said. “If they say ‘The sky is yellow,’ they will believe it.”