Broadcasters, Advertisers Join Forces on DTV Switch

Broadcasters are teaming up with advertisers to keep them in the loop on the progress of the switch to digital TV.

They launched the aptly named DTV Transition: Keeping the Ad Community in the Loop, which combines the efforts of the National Association of Broadcasters, the Television Bureau of Advertising, the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers.

The effort will comprise e-mails, Webcasts, a speakers' bureau, and meetings among the groups to identify issues specific to advertisers as full-power broadcasters make the switch from analog to digital in February 2009.

The opportunities for advertisers include better pictures and sound quality for their ads and more opportunities for targeted advertising on new multicast channels, the NAB said.

The challenges include measurement of that new audience and an even more subdivided viewership.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.