Broadcasters, NAB and FCC Get Ready to Spread Word on Repack

With Phase 1 of the incentive auction TV channel repacking beginning Friday (see 1809100033) and many TV channel changes imminent, the FCC, NAB and broadcasters are working on strategies to get the word to viewers. Efforts range from TV spots starring Dr. Phil to interactive websites to physical handouts at electronics stores. Congress included $50 million in its latest repacking reimbursement legislation for consumer education. Some broadcasters and industry officials worry nonetheless about whether the message will get out in time.

The DTV transition garnered copious national coverage, said Michael Copps, who presided over that effort as interim FCC chairman. “Other than the trade press, I haven’t heard a great deal about this,” Copps said. “They have fifty million for education, they haven’t spent a dime,” said broadcaster and National Translator Association President John Terrill about the FCC.

The Incentive Auction Task Force has plans to spend those consumer education funds, and already has a number of tools in place, said IATF Chair Jean Kiddoo in an interview. The FCC has a frequently asked questions page, a toll-free consumer help desk, an online guide to rescanning a TV, and a repack channel change map that allows viewers to input street addresses to tell them about channels moving in their area, she said. The agency has solicited a contract to add a new call center dedicated to answering viewer questions, and is looking at hiring a PR firm to assist in developing an effective plan for the commission’s informational effort, all using the consumer education money from Congress, she said.

Educating viewers about the repacking is challenging since it doesn’t apply nationwide all at once -- individual markets will be affected at different times, said Kiddoo. The agency’s experience with the 120 stations that vacated their pre-auction channels demonstrates stations are doing a good job of educating consumers, she said. The FCC’s goal is to augment the station effort, Kiddoo said. “The stations clearly want viewers to be able to find them, and we want to assist in that effort where appropriate."

The regulator has been working closely with NAB on the viewer notification effort and sharing data, Kiddoo said. The association created its own repacking information site and interactive online maps, and will soon release video spots for stations to use starring TV personalities explaining the repacking and rescanning, including Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, said a spokesman for the group. NAB and CTA are also partnering to provide literature with retail antennas informing buyers about the need for rescanning channels during the repacking, NAB said.

Along with the FCC, NAB has been working with consumer groups on the transition, such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the spokesman said. CTA and NHMC didn’t comment.

All broadcasters we interviewed plan to let viewers know by airing information on their own channels.

“We are planning on running promotional spots,” said Tamie Cook, general manager of Christian Television Network owned-and-operated KFXB-TV Dubuque, Iowa. KFXB is set to be repacked in Phase 1, and Cook plans to supplement the spots with newspaper ads. Terrill’s low power-TV stations are using a crawl.

Pollack Broadcasting CEO William Pollack said his stations will rely on commercials and communications over social media. Notifying viewers over the air can be tricky, since the rescanning issues won’t apply to those watching over cable or direct broadcast satellite, said Dave Kielmeyer, chief marketing-communications officer for Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Kielmeyer oversees the school’s station WBGU-TV, which is 90 percent viewed through MVPDs, he told us.

All the broadcasters expect viewer calls when the stations change channels. “The viewers always call,” said Ramar Communications General Manager Brad Moran.

Informing consumers about the repack transition is more difficult than the DTV transition because there’s no single date, the NAB spokesman said. It would be easier if it were simply a nationwide, one-day “flash cut,” he said. Telling the country about the DTV switch was a massive undertaking, Copps said, pointing out that it involved deploying commissioners on a road tour, a delayed national deadline, and an FCC-sponsored racecar.

Pollack sees the repacking as easier. Station moves don’t require consumers to get new TVs and the social media and other avenues to communicate about the transition weren’t as prevalent at the time of the DTV changeover. Said Pollack, “This is going to be smoother."