State broadcaster association action plan

The federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (DTV) broadcasting presents tremendous opportunities for the broadcasting industry – but also significant challenges. While DTV presents countless benefits for consumers, the DTV transition requires action by consumers to upgrade in order to continue receiving free television broadcasts. With less than 50 percent of over-the-air consumers currently aware that the transition is taking place, and as upgrading requires the purchase of a new television set, a DTV converter box or subscription to a pay television service, broadcasters have a great amount of work to do to educate the public about the transition.

To that end, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is engaged in a major consumer education campaign involving research, media outreach, promotional marketing, public service announcements, a speakers bureau and coordination of the DTV Transition Coalition.

Key to the success of broadcasters' efforts, however, is the coordinated efforts of state broadcaster associations to bring local energy to and awareness of the transition. By dovetailing the efforts of national and state broadcaster associations, we can better marshal our efforts to reach consumers at the most local of levels.

This memorandum outlines a variety of strategies to bring attention to the DTV transition in your state, and we encourage you to use them.

1. Media Briefings: As broadcasters, we need to ensure that reporters cover the DTV transition accurately as we approach February 2009. Earned media coverage may be the single most cost-effective method to reach the most people with information about DTV, so we need to generate coverage of the transition whenever possible.
   
   To that end, Shermaze Ingram, NAB's director of media relations for DTV, recently spent a week in New York briefing television and technology reporters on the DTV transition. The briefings featured a live demonstration of the digital-to-analog converter boxes. Participants included AP, Reuters, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, Forbes and a variety of other news organizations. The New York Times used the opportunity as a news hook and published a story about the transition on June 7 that included a front-page snapshot of the article. The AP published a story about converter boxes on June 26 and featured a companion video piece on AP's online video service the same day.
   
   This model of briefing reporters with converter box demonstrations can also be used locally. We encourage state broadcaster associations to schedule their own DTV media briefings with local reporters in state capitals or large cities. NAB can supply converter boxes for the events, as well as background materials for reporters interested in writing a story immediately. These efforts will not only generate immediate local coverage like the Times story (it will likely be the first time reporters have seen converter boxes), but also provide an opportunity to educate reporters with accurate information on the transition. Moreover, these briefings will help us to build relationships with reporters, so that as February 2009 approaches, they will come back to broadcasters for information on the transition.
    
2. Speakers Bureau: As many of you know, NAB is laying the groundwork for a massive, 50-state DTV speakers bureau, whereby we will train representatives from local stations to give presentations on the DTV transition, supply them with materials and book speaking engagements for them. Centralizing the effort in this way will allow the industry to not only focus our efforts where consumer awareness lags, but also provide deliverables on behalf of the broadcasting industry to Congress and regulators about the number of consumers we have reached – beyond PSAs – with information about the DTV transition.
   
   We encourage each state broadcaster association to participate in the speakers bureau program. The speaking engagements will begin this fall, and will not only serve to educate viewers in person about the DTV transition, but will also help us to garner local news coverage about the transition. The events will be held at Rotary clubs, Kiwanis clubs, retirement communities, manufacturing plants, schools and a variety of other venues. You can register online to become a speaker by completing this form.
    
3. Public Service Announcements: NAB will produce and distribute public service announcement spots to stations and state broadcaster associations by December 2007. (NAB is not distributing fully-produced spots before then, as converter boxes will not be readily available for purchase before January 2008. For more information on NAB's PSA rollout, click here.)
   
   In the immediate term, we will begin distributing a PSA package that includes teaser copy to promote NAB's official DTVanswers.com Web site, a video package including footage of converter boxes for newscasts and graphic elements that are consistent with the branding of the national campaign for stations wishing to produce their own PSAs. As the campaign progresses, we will also roll out "donut" spots, radio scripts, a fully produced PSA spot by the end of the year and a 25 minute DTV educational television program early next year.
   
   We will distribute the PSA package to all state broadcaster associations, any elements of which your associations can co-brand with NAB.
    
4. DTVanswers.com Web site: NAB has launched www.dtvanswers.com as its official Web site on the DTV transition. This Web site, the language throughout the site, and the DTVanswers.com logo reflect the branding we will use for the national PSA campaign.
   
   We have also created a variety of Web banner ads to promote the site, which are available here.
   
   For branding and marketing purposes, we encourage all state broadcaster associations to link to the DTVanswers.com Web site in addition to the DTV Transition Coalition Web site.
    
5. State coalition meetings: NAB has helped coordinate the DTV Transition Coalition – the large group of broadcasters, businesses, trade associations and membership organizations supportive of a smooth transition on February 17, 2009. More than 100 organizations have joined the coalition, including 49 state broadcaster associations. The coalition meets monthly to share information, and as we draw closer to the transition, we will be using our members as conduits to transmit information on the transition to their respective membership.
   
   This national coalition model can be replicated at the state level by state broadcaster associations. Broadcasters can meet on a periodic basis with retailers as well as state chapters of the AARP, NAACP, and local service organizations to make sure that groups with an interest in a smooth transition that have not been approached for membership by the national coalition can receive the tools they need to educate their members.
   
   Both the Nevada Association of Broadcasters and Michigan Association of Broadcasters are currently laying the groundwork for state-based coalition meetings, which could be replicated nationwide.
    
6. Partnerships with local service organizations: One very important goal of the coalition is to ensure that the disabled community, senior citizens and people with special needs are able to not only purchase the equipment they need to navigate the transition, but install it as well. We encourage you to engage local service organizations – from Boy Scouts, to university Circle K clubs, and expanding outward to polytechnic high schools – to help those communities navigate the transition to digital television. Engaging local organizations can only be effectively done from the local level, and we encourage your organizations to connect with groups that may want to help consumers navigate the DTV transition.
    
7. DTV Road Show and other promotional efforts: Beginning in fall 2007, NAB will be launch a promotional 150+ city DTV road show, whereby a vehicle will travel from city to city promoting the transition and demonstrating both the benefits of digital broadcasting and converter boxes to consumers, and to gain coverage in the media. We will be in contact with each state association before events occur in your respective states, and we encourage individual associations to help promote these events, encourage local media coverage, and co-brand them with NAB to make the event more local.
    
8. Logging your DTV activities: With so little money allocated by the federal government to market the DTV transition, the task has fallen to broadcasters to execute virtually all of the consumer education and marketing efforts – and we have not shied away from the challenge. But with this responsibility also comes the scrutiny of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and as an industry we need to ensure that we are giving ourselves the credit that we deserve for the work we have undertaken.
   
   We encourage each state broadcaster association to log in a spreadsheet the resources you have spent and events you have helped promote for the DTV transition. Logging your local events alongside the national efforts will help ensure that the broadcasting industry is fully representing its efforts on the DTV transition to federal regulators.
    
9. Contact and partner with local officials: NAB has sent a congressional tool kit – including marketing collateral, brochures, a sample press release and a PowerPoint presentation – to each of the 535 members of Congress to make sure they have the tools they need to promote DTV in their states and congressional districts.
   
   Yet, while Congress passed the law, local officials have a platform from which they may want to educate their constituents about the transition. Similar "toolkits" can be distributed to state and local officials. NAB will provide each state association with an electronic kit that they can make available for local officials. We will distribute the kit electronically at the end of July.
    

As you know, NAB has hired a full time staff dedicated exclusively to DTV consumer education. If you ever have questions about these initiatives or need more information, please do not hesitate to call me or Abbi Stuaan (astuann@nab.org; 202-429-5358), who handles all of our outreach to television stations and local government and organizations.