This is the third in a series of observations and ideas gleaned from my weekly travels across the country…

DTV rush to save a dark-rumped petrel.  If you read my previous blog you know that the state of Hawaii had a successful transition to DTV last week.   I didn't know until today that the rush to be first for the 50th state was prompted by an endangered Hawaiian bird - the dark-rumped petrel.  It is a bird that lives in volcanoes and the petrel's nesting season is fast approaching.  So, Hawaii took the digital plunge early so there would be time to take down the analog transmission towers in time to assure no interference with the petrel's mating season.  I'm not kidding!

Analog Anger.  Meantime on the mainland, broadcasting group heads are steamed over the movement in Congress to delay the digital conversion past February 17th.  The reason - it will cost the broadcast groups tens of thousands of dollars to pay for continued electrictiy to the dinosaur transmitters.  Not exactly something they relish in this difficult year.

Meaningless March Book?   This whole ridiculous Nielsen idea of moving the February sweeps to March due to the possibly-delayed digital conversion, is also a sore point with broadcasters everywhere.  As one GM put it to me, “If the March ratings are good - buyers will beat us up because it is not a normal sweeps time period, and if it's bad they will use it to beat us up on our advertising rates.  It is a no-win situation.”

Meaningless March Book II.  And from a news and marketing point of view it is also a no-win situation.   Should the news department create special reports for what is essentially a book that will be thrown out after a month - since the May book will be in by then?   Should the marketing department spend very tight outside advertising dollars or save them for May?   What a mess created by that monopoly called Nielsen.  By the way my answer to those two questions is NO!

Embracing New Technology.  I am excited as I begin my nationwide travels for 2009 to see the rush by many local TV stations to embrace the new technology to provide news and information on multiple platforms.   Many stations are creating their own Facebook page to provide news and information on that social network; they are sending Tweets to viewers as they have a 2-way conversation with their customers on a daily basis about many issues; more anchors and reporters are blogging on a daily basis and inviting instant feedback from local news viewers; and stations are quickly experimenting with SKYPE to send live reports back from the field using computers.  If your station is not joining this rush to connectivity - that train has moved far down the tracks - right past you!

Economy, Economy, Economy.   One thing has not changed in the last couple of months - the main issue on your viewers' minds is still the economy.  It needs to be part of your daily planning and content every day as we head into 2009.

Jim

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.