FCC Spending $1M on DTV Ads with AARP

FCC ramps up its investment in DTV education with full-page ads targeting seniors.

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/16/2008 12:43:00 PM

The FCC is ramping up its investment in DTV education--it recently got $20 million from Congress for that purpose.

First there was the $350,000 NASCAR sponsorship, now comes word that the FCC has bought $1 million worth of advertising in AARP publications.

Seniors are one of the key target populations in terms of percentage of analog-only TV viewing and assistance in setting up DTV-to-analog converter boxes or adjusting antennas.

According to FCC sources, that $1 million gets the government a full-page in AARP's November and December bulletins, as well as a full page in its Winter magazine, Spanish and English-language editions, which come out in January.

The ads will include DTV converter box applications. The January edition may be cutting it kind of close since the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is mailing out the coupons, is encouraging everyone to order theirs by the end of December to make sure they have enough time to get them and try them out before the Feb. 17, 2009 transition date. But it will reach a huge audience.

The AARP magazine boasts the world's largest circulation at 24 million. The Spanish-language version reaches an additional 800,000. Hispanics are also a target population given the high percentage of analog-only , over-the-air households.

Talkback

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  OUTREACH, not ADVERTISING. My mother is 87 years old. She lives in assisted living facility. She has poor short-term memory. She does not read AARP. But she needs her broadcast TV to live a meaningful life. What she needs from the FCC is a program that ensures that the administrators of her home are educated about what they need for the transition -- in this case, a MATV DTV converter and a reaimed (or new) rooftop antenna that gets all the OTA channels. For seniors who live alone, the FCC should fund an outreach program that provides for personal visits, and perhaps supplies converters and antennas to seniors who lack the ability to do what it takes to get ready. Advertising is an inefficient, impersonal bureaucratic solution to a problem that require a human touch and technical assistance.

  
  

  
  Adam Smith - 10/16/2008 9:58:00 PM EDT
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