FCC Gets Earful On DTV
Sources say call center received 122,389 calls as of 2 p.m. Friday
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/12/2009 5:28:56 PM EDT
The DTV Countdown: Complete Coverage of the DTV Transition
FCC sources says that, as of 2 p.m. Friday, it had gotten 122,389 calls to its DTV helpline.
That is the first call center figure released, and likely the last until an update Saturday.
To put that total in perspective, yesterday was a record day for the call center when it logged 149,206 calls. By 2 p.m. yesterday, it had "only" gotten 37,187 calls.
Operators have been added to bring down wait times, according to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. But a source says the call time for Friday was actually a little shorter than average, attributing that to a message early on that tells callers to rescan the box for new channels.
Thursday's peak was around 6 p.m., but Friday's will likely have several spikes given the staggered cut-offs.
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