PSA Work Plan

While NAB has begun a comprehensive 50 state campaign to educate Americans about the transition to digital broadcasting, no single element of the broadcasting industry's campaign is more central consumer awareness than public service announcements, or PSAs.

Aired by NAB's local television broadcasting affiliates, independent stations, and broadcast networks, broadcasters' PSAs represent the "campaign ads" of our DTV consumer education efforts. PSAs will be the element most responsible for bringing consumers' attention to the DTV Transition driving consumer awareness of the DTV transition.

Elements of NAB's PSA plan

NAB has committed in Congress to design and implement a public service announcement campaign, and deliver fully-produced DTV public service spots to stations by the end of 2007.

Note: Questions often arise NAB is not planning to produce and distribute these spots earlier. The reason for this is the government converter box coupon program. As you know, the federal government is providing $40 coupons for households that can use to purchase digital to analog converter boxes for their analog sets. However, these government coupons for converter boxes will not be available until January 1, 2008 and there is yet no firm commitment by retailers to make boxes available by the first of the year. Running a campaign to educate Americans about DTV before the equipment necessary to upgrade is available for purchase could hurt our efforts more than help.

However, NAB will deliver other materials for stations that desire to run spots before our fully-produced spots are ready, which is discussed below.

Beyond PSAs, NAB's DTV unit will provide a variety of materials for stations on the DTV transition. A strong PSA package for local stations will include the following:

Tease copy: Copy for stations to use to tease the DTV transition in their newscasts and direct consumers to the DTVanswers.com Web site for more information
Video package: NAB will produce and distribute a DTV video package and B-roll footage to help stations report on the DTV transition.
Graphic elements: Graphics, music and other production elements with NAB branding that local stations and state broadcasters groups can use to create their own spots
Donuts: One or two "donut" spots, where local stations can insert local talent into DTV public service announcements
Spots: Four to six fully produced and edited 30 second spots on the transition, including at least one sixty second version
DTV educational TV program: A 25 minute educational program on the DTV transition that local station can air when appropriate
Crawls: NAB will work with stations and networks to find agreement on the use of "crawls" to alert consumers to the transition and drive traffic to the Web site
Foreign language spots: We have begun talks with a number of groups that can take already-produced spots and use voiceovers to make them useable on foreign language stations

Tease copy
By the end of June, NAB will provide stations with "tease copy" that stations can use to position themselves in newscasts as the place to go for information on the DTV Transition. For this first phase of marketing, NAB will also include fully designed banner ads for station websites to link to NAB's DTVanswers.com website. Target date: June 2007.

Video package
As DTV converter boxes are not yet on the market for purchase, neither is video footage of how these converter boxes function. NAB will produce and distribute a 10-minute video package in HD that may be down-converted to SD, and will include B-roll of converter boxes, transmission towers and other video elements that can help newscasters tell the story of the DTV transition. Target Date: September 2007.

Graphic Elements
With a number of stations and state broadcaster associations already expressing interest in running PSAs early on, NAB will also distribute production elements, including graphics and sound, to stations as a way of bringing continuity and branding to local and national PSA campaigns. Target date: September 31, 2008.

"Donuts"
To localize the PSA campaign while ensuring continued branding of the campaign, NAB will also produce a number of "donut" spots – ads produced with a hole in the middle, into which a station can insert video and sound with local talent or locally recognizable and trusted figures, such as news anchors, mayors, local celebrities, etc. NAB will also provide suggested copy for talent to read on-air. Target date: December 2008.

Spots
By August, NAB will request proposals for creative, production and post-production on one thirty-second ad, alerting consumers to the coming DTV transition, based on messaging gleaned from our survey research. NAB will distribute the first spot to every member station and state broadcasting association for airing.

Once the first spot is produced, we will produce another 3-5 spots over the course of 2008 in a story arc, which hit upon the strongest messages in our surveys. Target date: Introductory spot completed no later than Nov. 30, 2007. Three spots produced over course of 2008, two for 2009.

DTV educational TV program
NAB's DTV unit has also budgeted for creative, production and post-production of a 20-30 minute DTV transition educational program that local stations can run after hours. NAB will look for a celebrity or widely known personality or trusted journalist to host the program. Target date: Distribution no later than January 31, 2008.

Crawls
We will begin discussions with networks and group owners on the possibility of running "crawls" or scrolling messages along the top of television programming, especially as we approach Transition Day. The use of scrolls has been wildly successful in driving consumer awareness in Europe, and has been urged by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Target date: Agreements by December 31, 2007.