NAB Introduces New Digital One-Stop Props

Association quietly rolls out lobby tool ahead of D.C. conclave

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/25/2013 12:01:00 AM

The National Association of Broadcasters has quietly employed an inviting new assistant to help its TV station members pitch the value of broadcasting—one with a name that brings to mind success stories such as Farmers Insurance and the Grammywinning band fun.

At the beginning of February, the association began circulating the URL www.wearebroadcasters.com to its members. The site, a joint project of NAB staffers, according to spokesman Dennis Wharton, was submitted to the board for approval during its Jan. 27- 28 meeting in West Palm Beach. Fla.

Wharton calls the digital assist a “one-stop shopping” venue for “all the great things broadcasters do across America every day.” That includes charitable works, the airing of public service announcements and all the public interest programming broadcasters are emphasizing even more as the government pitches wireless broadband as the next big thing.

The site contains new PSAs stations can download and use to promote themselves and their business with on-air promotional inventory. It also includes sections on broadcasters as first informers, local news providers and the future of broadcast technology.

And it rather pointedly plugs the price of broadcasting: free. “Broadcasters are rolling out new free services such as local TV on tablets and smartphones, providing live, local news, emergency information and entertainment to consumers on the go. No monthly fee and no Internet access required,” states the wearebroadcasters.com copy.

The site will help boost that future-forward image as broadcasters gather in Washington to meet with their respective Congress members and FCC officials in early March.

Wharton says the gathering in D.C. is one big factor behind the site. With the new site, NAB members can bring up info on their tablets or mobile devices when reps for about 500 stations take to the Hill for their annual Washington fly-in on March 6.

The site has been in the works since last fall, according to Wharton. From the charitable works they are involved with to the number of jobs they create, broadcasters can walk into a congressional office, pull out an iPad and let the digital info do the talking.

Accessing the info on a tablet is easier for the broadcaster to promote those materials, and it not-so-subtly suggests the marriage of broadcasting and broadband that broadcasters are pitching as the FCC prepares to auction broadcast spectrum to resell to wireless firms.

In the past few months, broadcasters and wireless broadband providers have found common ground in their shared proposal for a spectrum repacking band plan. One of the new promotional spots is available for viewing by interested parties—including members of Congress—here.

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