Over-The-Air TV Viewing Seen Diminishing After DTV Switch

“That’s why mobile is so highly important,” said Glenn Reitmeier, NBC vice president of technology standards, policy and strategy: “It becomes the public policy justification to keep over the air broadcasting.” And mobile has a compelling case to make for that, he said. There ultimately will be 300 million-plus new mobile DTV receivers in the U.S., according to the Open Mobile Video Coalition. They also claim that by 2012 the service will bring $1.1 billion in annual sales to TV stations and $900 million to the networks. “It’s a growth business, a new technoloy business and it’s an economic stimulus,” Reitmeier said.

Mobile DTV service should be free and ad-supported, as traditional broadcast TV has been, said John Eck, president of NBC TV Network and Media Works. Some think that subscription-based services “will be a panacea,” he said. “But if that’s the way we go, it’s going to look like MediaFLO,” he said. Ultimately, broadcasters will develop new services using digital spectrum and there will be many mobile applications, he said. “I honestly believe the game hasn’t even started.”

DTV Transition Won’t Be Seamless

Inevitably, not every viewer will enjoy a seamless DTV shift, Okun said. The shift will come as a new administration is settling in, and perhaps with a different power balance in Congress, he said. The political groundwork has been done to let public officials deflect blame if the switch isn’t an utter success, he said. “I'm not sure what the government can do at that point,” he said.

Meanwhile, broadcasters expect the 90-day expiration period to hold for NTIA-issued DTV converter box coupons, Okun said. “I think we're all under the assumption that’s not going to be extended,” he said.

Ahead of the analog cutoff, NBC is helping affiliates get ready, said Ian Trombley, NBC Universal executive vice president of media distribution. The network has set up a Web site on which affiliates can post updates on their progress so they can see how far along other station groups are, and NBC can monitor affiliate efforts at large, he said. NBC worries over how cable operators will convert NBC-owned and affiliated stations’ HD signals to analog, and is pushing a new Active Format Description technology along with Hearst- Argyle and Tribune. Cable operators would need to buy into AFD-ready gear, and broadcasters could decide in real time how their signals are converted from the 16:9 digital aspect ratio to the 4:3 analog ratio, he said. -- Josh Wein

NAB Notebook

Broadcast officials voiced pessimism about prospects for testing an early DTV switch in a market. That would demand broad coordination among local stations and a willing local government, said attorney Bryan Tramont, former FCC chief of staff. “That’s a tough political ask,” he said. Broadcasters mostly have been cool to the idea for varied reasons, attorney Rob Rini said. Some of his clients heard overtures about a possible early switch, he said. “There were concerns about ratings, about DTV converter box availability and LPTV issues,” he said. PBS stations in the market also worried about an early analog shutoff’s effect on fund-raising, he said. And there’s danger of national and local messages conflicting, NAB Vice President Jonathan Collegio said. A test market might have been smart a few years ago, but now “it just may be a little too late for that,” Rini said. Not so, said FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai. “We're still optimistic,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s too late.”

----

Broadcasters want as much lead time as possible to get ready to file signal maximization applications, attorney Rob Rini said Tuesday. Earlier in the week, FCC officials hinted that a freeze on such submissions could lift sooner than expected. “There’s a ton of work that goes into an FCC filing window,” Rini said. He suggested expanding the filing window so all applications arriving in a given a five-day period are deemed to have been filed at the same time. That’s because such applications get first-come, first-served handling, and late filers risk having applications denied because granting them would interfere with one already granted, he said.

---

Broadcasters who were sent indecency complaints by mail should keep “every aspect of the materials, including the envelope in which it came,” attorney Jack Goodman told broadcasters. Complaints received in various parts of the country seem to have Miami postmarks, he said. Stations should keep all the evidence they can to argue a complaint is invalid, he said.

----

Considering keynote speaker Tim Robbins’ topic and language, the question is who invited the Hollywood producer and actor to speak at Monday’s opening session of the NAB convention and why (CD April 15 p1). NAB board members wouldn’t say. Counterparts joint board chairman Jack Sander and Radio Board Chairman Russell Withers both told us they weren’t involved in the selection and didn’t know ahead of time who was speaking. But sources told us NAB President David Rehr signed off on Robbins’ invitation. NAB’s spokesman said only that he didn’t know from where the invitation originated. NAB “has a broad reach and it was a good attempt,” he said. “But he went too far.” Broadcaster Stanley Hubbard called Robbins “a bitter liberal… using inappropriate locker room talk.”

----

Despite gloom and doom predictions for radio’s future, the medium has bright prospects because it anticipates what listeners want and need and is always there when wanted, keynoter Robert Pittman, ex-MTV and AOL, told the NAB radio lunch in Las Vegas Tuesday. “It’s frustrating to me… to hear people talk about radio as if there’s something wrong,” Pittman said. “When you look at radio, you're looking at the future” -- and not its past, he said. As proof, he said, consider radio’s convenience and the many uses to which the public puts it.

----

Pressure is “enormous” to give people TV programming by whatever viewing method they want, CSI Producer Anthony Zuiker told his NAB audience at a session on content. Viewer habits are shifting, and audiences no longer want to wait week-to-week for network schedules, and content providers must embrace multiple platforms, Zuiker said. But Zuiker said he remains positive about the future of scheduled TV fare in this fragmented environment.

----

Participants enthused about the shift of TV transmissions to high definition next February during a Tuesday NAB panel. NTIA’s Bernadette McGuire said 100,400 retail outlets are accepting coupons for set-top boxes. More than $5 million in ads have run to let people know about the 2009 deadline, she said. NTIA’s Anthony Wilhelm said broadcasters should urge consumers to apply early for coupons. Washington attorney Robert Rini said “concerns” about the transition include FCC notification requirements on TV licensees and stations’ possible loss of service.