The NAB wants the CEA to make sure there is plenty of consumer DTV equipment on the shelves; analog shutdowns are being set for Washington DC, San Diego CA; Hispanic Telemundo Network is using a week of primetime to emphasize the upcoming changes; Noncommercial stations in Maine are taking the DTV plunge over a month ahead of the deadline; and a website with nothing whatsoever to do with the transition may be misleading some consumers.
* NAB President/CEO David K. Rehr fired off a letter to his opposite number at the CEA, Gary Shapiro, urging him to make sure retailers are well stocked with digital-to-analog converter boxes and digital televisions as the holiday gift-giving season winds down and the DTV deadline approaches.
* Washington DC television stations will run DTV tests 12/15/08, 12/17/08 and 12/23/08. Viewers will find out if they are digitally prepped or not, with the unready getting a referral to dtv.gov for further information.
* San Diego stations are planning a pair of analog shutdown tests, on 12/17/09 and 1/14/09. 50K households there are believed to be off-air analog-only.
* Five stations in the Maine Public Broadcasting Network are switching to all-digital early, on 1/11/09, to give viewers time to relocate those of their channels that are moving to a new dial position, thus avoiding confusion and adding dual-stream capability for the net’s highly popular broadcasts of the Maine Principals’ Association High School Invitational Basketball Tournament, which tips off 2/18/09, the day after the DV deadline.
* NBCU’s Telemundo Network will be focusing on the transition every day in primetime from 12/15/087 through 12/21/08, using its top talent to drive the message home to its Hispanic viewers.
* Several stations are warning viewers looking for DTV information online to make sure they go to dtv.gov, not dtv.com, as is commonly down by mistake. The latter incorrect url takes one to a site offering thousands of stations delivered to your computer, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the DTV transition.
