FCC’s $1.35 Million in DTV Ads Draws Mixed Reaction
Perhaps the most unique way the FCC has unveiled to tell Americans of the DTV transition drew mixed reaction. The CEA, NAB and two members of an FCC advisory committee said the agency seems to be wisely spending the $20 million Congress gave it for DTV education by paying $350,000 to sponsor a NASCAR driver (CD Oct 17 p10). They also supported the commission’s deal with AARP to spend $1 million to run ads in four magazine editions. But a third member of the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee and two marketing professors were skeptical of the NASCAR deal, saying the race car will have little visibility with racegoers or those watching the three races on TV.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The FCC got a 22 percent government discount on its sponsorship of David Gilliland and his Yates Racing car in three Sprint Cup Series races, starting with Sunday’s event, said an agency spokesman. Ads will be on the driver’s suit and on the hood, sides and back of his car, he said late Thursday. The hood paint scheme asks “is your TV ready for digital,” with a picture of a TV set and the analog cutoff date written across it. The FCC will have a banner in the car’s pit, a spokeswoman said Friday.
Full-page ads on DTV with applications for NTIA digital converter box coupons will run in the November and December editions of AARP’s monthly magazine and in its English and Spanish-language quarterly edition, the spokesman said. The English editions have about 24 million subscribers, with almost 1 million receiving the Spanish publication, he added.
The magazine and race car ads are “bold and creative ways of reaching” TV viewers “at risk” for missing out on the transition, said an NAB spokesman. With a majority of Americans surveyed having seen televised information on the transition, the FCC approach is “targeted” to “rural, working class folks” who are racing fans and elderly readers of AARP literature, he said. Among all Americans surveyed by NAB, 92 percent say they're aware of DTV, but only 85 percent of people 65 and older are in the know, said the spokesman. CEA supports “the robust and diverse consumer outreach efforts” by the FCC, said a spokeswoman. “It is important to reach consumers via various mediums and their latest plans will do just that.”
The plans “certainly sound good” to Gloria Tristani, a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee, which deals with DTV and other issues. “I just hope the FCC consulted with an advertising specialist” before making the buys, added Tristani, a Democratic commissioner from 1997 to 2001. “Obviously the push should be to those households that might be left in the dark, many of them are Hispanic, low income.” Another committee member, Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton, said the AARP deal “seems to be smart, albeit overdue.” Smart because the group’s magazine is widely distributed and a “trusted source that will hit a targeted, at-risk population.” But the NASCAR deal “seems a little harder to justify” because it’s only for three races and the car isn’t top ranked, added Benton. “No offense to Mr. Gilliland and the car 38 team, but he generally starts and ends the race near the rear. How much camera time will the car get?”
Probably very little, said Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economics professor and sports business expert. “NASCAR ratings have been slipping” and only the final race of the season during which the FCC is sponsoring Gilliland, Nov. 16 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, is popular, he said. The FCC said 17 of the 20 most-attended U.S. sporting events are NASCAR races, with the Sprint series viewed by 8 million weekly. But George Washington University Associate Professor of Global Marketing Marilyn Liebrenz-Himes doubts the FCC’s ads “will reach as many people as some other vehicles,” she said. “My concern is more with this vague message than the position of these ads” since people are unlikely to get specific instructions about what they must do before Feb. 17. But she said the AARP ads seem worthwhile, as did Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action and an FCC advisory panelist who’s criticized FCC DTV outreach. “I just wish that they would have been placed a year or two ago,” said McEldowney. “The $350,000 sponsorship of a race car and driver for three races is ridiculous. What a total waste of money.”