One blogger's take on digital transition public service advertisements

Over at the Undercurrent, a blog run by the Louisville-based Current Marketing agency, Katy Miller comments on a PSA about the digital television transition:

Here's what's confusing to me - the spot ran on cable. So, if you are watching using rabbit ears, you would never see the spot. Why is that spot running on cable? Did someone PAY to run that spot on cable? Or did it run as a PSA? Either way, why is that air time being wasted? I feel sure there are plenty of other deserving and more appropriate PSAs that could be run in this time.

Here's the spot:

Here's the scoop Katy.  We are running the spots for free.  We're doing so for several reasons.  First, the cable industry, along with the broadcast and consumer electronics industries all agreed to a Congressional request that we create and execute a communications program to educate the public about the coming broadcast digital transition.

It is understandable that you wonder why we are running these spots on cable.  It is true that any TV hooked up to cable will work without doing anything after the transition.  Many of our customers are confused by all the messages about government coupons, new televisions or digital converters.  We are attempting to clarify for our customers what they either need or don't need to do.

For instance, some of our customers have additional TV's in their households that still use an antenna to receive their signals.  This message is to alert them that they do, indeed, need to do something to keep those televisions working after the transition. 

In addition to the public service announcements, keep an eye out for the first of a series of Insight community forums on the digital transition in the coming weeks.  If you are (or if you have a friend or neighbor who is) concerned about whether they're ready for the transition, we'd love to explain the situation to them.  I'll be posting times and locations of these forums as they're scheduled.

Comments

[Katy Miller]

Thank you so much, Michael, for your response to my blog entry. It's refreshing to discover a leader who is so in tune with his customer base. I now understand why you are running the spots!
And we love our dual tuner DVR!
Thanks again!
Katy Miller
Media Darling
CurrentMarketing