Martin, NAB At Odds On Primetime PSAs
Broadcast Lobby Says It Wants ‘Maximum Flexibility’
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 10/17/2007 12:09:00 PM MT
Washington -- Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin on Wednesday endorsed rules that would force TV stations to run digital television educational message during peak nighttime audience hours, putting him at odds with the National Association of Broadcasters.
“What I concluded is that they need to be doing public service announcements during each day part,” Martin told reporters after testifying before a House subcommittee on the cutoff of analog TV on Feb. 17, 2009. “We divided the day into different parts, and one of those parts does include prime time.”
The NAB has routinely resisted making any specific and concrete promises about running DTV public service announcements in prime time when ad revenue is typically highest. In FCC filings, the NAB has repeatedly urged the agency to eschew any PSA mandates.
“We would respectfully submit that maximum flexibility is necessary to ensure that this education effort succeeds, and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is unnecessary,” Dennis Wharton, NAB’s executive vice president of media relations, said in a statement Wednesday evening.
At press conference Monday, a reporter asked NAB president David Rehr to outline broadcasters’ plan to run primetime PSAs. Rehr took four seconds to respond before backing away from the podium.
“We will run ads, we will run DTV actions spots in primetime,” Rehr said.
When the reporter sought more details, Rehr added, “We will be running DTV actions spots in prime time, but it will really depend on the market and the needs of the market. It would be premature for me to stand up and say, ‘X number of spots will run in prime time.’” The action spots are 30-second PSAs.
All five FCC members have a draft of Martin’s proposed DTV education rules that will evidently impose quantifiable prime time PSA mandates on TV stations.
“It’s important that it not be just limited to public service announcements at one time of day. We want to make sure that those announcements are being run at all different times of day, including prime time,” Martin said.
In his House testimony, Martin said the rules would require cable companies to include DTV transition educational announcements in monthly bills sent to subscribers. Cable has already volunteered to do that.
Later, Martin signaled that there shouldn’t be too much of a political struggle at the FCC to gain approval of the prime time PSA mandate.
“I’m actually pretty optimistic that I think that the commission will support me,” Martin said.
On Monday, the NAB unveiled a DTV education plan that it said was worth $697 million. Rehr described a six-point plan, but five of the points had nothing to do with using the broadcast TV medium to educate the public about the demise of analog TV. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has its own DTV education effort, said to be worth $200 million, that includes airing 30-second PSAs, among other things.
The legal requirement that TV stations send signals only in digital format in early 2009 could render 60 million to 70 million analog TV sets useless if they don’t get hooked up to cable, satellite TV, or digital-to-analog converter boxes. Lawmakers, regulators and industry stakeholders are working on a united campaign to raise consumer awareness so that the transition is a seamless one.
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02/15/2008Martin: Primetime PSAs Critical
09/25/2007
