April 14, 2008

DTV2009: National Association of Broadcaster's CEO "Will Leave No TV Set Behind"

"We will leave no TV set behind", said National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO David Rehr today in reference to the NAB's "highest TV priority" of ensuring that the 20 million American television sets that will lose over-the-air reception February 17, 2009 don't.

Both consumer and regulatory groups have called for more comprehensive consumer education regarding the digital TV transition and the NAB says it's here. We can expect to see the now familiar DTV2009 TV commercials about 642 times between now and the soon-approaching analog signal shutoff date as well as a $1billion educational budget spread between commercials, online and offline campaigns. Rehr said the NAB will continue to lobby the FCC on key issues including the use of unlicensed devices in the DTV-spectrum band and praised the digital switch concluding it will make TV "the say TV should be".

Digital signals will open up new revenue streams for broadcasters as digital signals can be transmitted to mobile devices which should bring in an expected $2 billion to broadcast TV by 2012, but Rehr said that the NAB shouldn't stop there. Probably the most interesting part of Rehr's keynote was his questioning of the future success of the current broadcast TV business model. Citing the success of online video platforms such as YouTube, Rehr questioned, "Because of YouTube, because of the Internet, because of cell phones and iPods, is our model broken?"

Via Broadcasting & Cable

Read More in: Digital TV Transition 2009