Backchannelmedia

Simon Applebaum

We're at 210 days and counting to the digital TV transition. Anyone hear anything substantial about that future event lately?

Not those gathering at the first Television Critics Association tour in over a year in Los Angeles, at least through halfway of that four-week affair. ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson was the only executive speaking at the tour about the transition, concluding that in his world of hope, the transition will be "handled smoothly across the board for everybody." Will other executives face the press with more to say? We'll see.

Meantime, you continue to see or hear plenty of dire language from Nielsen, Centris, Consumers Union and other places about how the transition could fall through for millions of households next February. The arguments they make: people are underestimating how many homes (up to 20 million) or areas of the country could be impacted. Or underestimating how many people will wait until the last pre-transition days to do something about it. Or underestimating how many Spanish, Asian or multi-lingual households aren't getting the right message about the transition and remain in the dark over what to do.

As Web site DTVRedAlert.org puts it, media and consumer technology organizations running campaigns calling attention to the transition "might be failing (to raise) public knowledge about the scope and scale of the matter."

From all the public service messages on the transition I watch here in New York, there's one thing that's not being communicated to the public, so critical to people getting the scope or scale. How will the transition benefit us, or what specific benefits will we get? You hear about what will happen and how to insure you're on fine terra firma when it does, but you don't hear or see what you get in return for investing in a new digital TV set, or a digital-to-analog converter box, or a new cable/satellite/overbuilder multichannel subscription.

Y2K came and went without the earth falling down because people clearly understood the benefits of upgrading your computer. What's more, the urgency of taking care of Y2K sooner than later was communicated just as clearly as the benefits.

There's 210 days left to integrate effective communication about the benefits--more programming services, better picture quality, more types of services available over the TV set in digital--with the overall transition message. A good start would be having TV stations and cable operators in specific markets work together, running joint campaigns on the basic themes instead of everyone marching to their own tempos. If you spot such a campaign and find it effective, let me know and we'll highlight it in this column.

There's still time for this transition to go the way of Y2K. All involved in pulling off this transition, use it wisely.

*****

Something else you probably didn't hear much about last week: the nominees for the 2008 Outstanding Commercial Emmy Award. The contenders are Hallmark Cards for their "Brother of the Bride" spot (Leo Burnett the agency); Fed Ex's "Carrier Pigeons" commercial (BBDO); the "Delivery" message from Travelers Insurance (Fallon); "It's Mine" from Coca-Cola (Wieden + Kennedy) and "Swear Jar" for Bud Light (DDB Chicago). May the best 30 or 60 seconds in this bunch win, and good luck to all.

*****

Hate to be like a broken record, but NBC once again last week had a great opportunity to ballyhoo its Summer Olympics coverage from Beijing, announcing its team of sportscasters and analysts. And once again, NBC limited promotion to a press release--no press conference, special event or conference call. If NBC makes next month's Olympics the second in a row with dismal primetime ratings, you may wonder why. Given how lackluster the marketing, promotion and PR effort is, this corner doesn't. Still want to be proven wrong.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned.

Simon Applebaum is producer/host of Tomorrow Will Be Televised, the weekly Internet radio program on www.nowlive.com (Monday afternoons from 3-4 p.m. ET/noon-1 p.m. PT). Today's guest: Cops co-creator/executive producer John Langley. Next week's guests: Black TV News Channel organizer and former congressman J.C. Watts; media pundit Kurt Anderson; ImagiNation TV Media president Adam Ware and Emmy Awards expert Tom O'Neill (E!, Los Angeles Times, The Envelope.com).