Adelstein Calls for DTV Task Force

ADELSTEIN CALLS FOR DTV TASK FORCE
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein wants the FCC to create a national DTV task force, working in concert with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, to educate consumers about the DTV transition. He said it was vital for the industry to do a better job of letting consumers know that their analog TV's won't be working in three years--at least not without a converter box. He said that his CEA summit audience was part of a small group of people who understood the nuances of the transition, but that there was an urgent need to transfer this inside-the-Beltway discussion into a coordinated consumer education campaign. "If we don't get this right," he said, "we face a tsunami of public outrage." Commissioner Adelstein said that since the FCC launched its DTV portal in October 2004, they have had 2.5 million hits, or about 100,000 hits per month. "Essentially people need to know how to get 'my DTV' and what's in it for me," he said. He also said that more money needed to be earmarked for an education campaign, saying that although NTIA got $5 million, he wasn't clear on whether that was for general awareness of specifically for promoting the converter box subsidy.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6316109?display=Breaking+News
* Avoid DTV Hysteria, Urges FCC's Adelstein
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10021...
* See full remarks:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-264354A1.doc