Collegio Outlines NAB’s DTV-Education Priorities
NAB DTV point person Jonathan Collegio points to general awareness of DTV transition, awareness of date, setting up converter boxes early.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/22/2008 12:11:00 PM
Jonathan Collegio, the National Association of Broadcasters’ point person on the digital-TV transition, said Monday that the DTV education message's priorities are general awareness of the transition, awareness of the Feb. 17, 2009, date, and getting viewers to set up their converter boxes early rather than waiting until the last minute.
The last item was definitely a lesson learned from Wilmington, N.C.
Talking about the early analog shutoff in Wilmington, Collegio said general awareness of the transition was "virtually saturated,” but the NAB did not expect as many "mundane" questions, like how to hook up the converter box.
That observation came at an Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) DTV summit Monday.
Asked whether the DTV messages needed to be more specific to issues like setting up the boxes or scanning for new channels, he said it would be tough to do in a 30-second spot, but TV stations were doing hard news stories on the transition, suggesting that the longer format was a better place for that more specific information.
Collegio also gave a shout-out to B&C's own longer-form DTV-education videos at monkeysee.com as one place to get some more detailed information on setup.
