Native Public Media and the National Association of Broadcasters partner on TV Transition Outreach
WASHINGTON, DC – Native Public Media and the National Association of Broadcasters will partner in community outreach efforts to inform the public about channel changes as certain television stations transition to new channel assignments. On April 13th, the 39-month transition period will begin for approximately 1,000 TV stations.
“Our goal is to make certain that all viewers, including Native viewers, have the same access in the future to free and local broadcast television as they do today,” stated Loris Taylor, President and CEO of Native Public Media.
NPM staff Melissa Begay, who will lead NPM’s outreach efforts to Native consumers, attended the TV Repack coalition meeting in Washington, DC. hosted by NAB. A number of organizations will focus on a nationwide consumer education campaign for the 77 million homes who watch television by way of over-the-air antennas (OTAA).
Over the next 3-years, the Federal Communications Commission will begin moving TV stations to their new frequency within ten phases. The first phase is scheduled for September 14, 2018 through November 30, 2018. TV stations get to choose their own dates to transition during their assigned phase.
“Because TV stations will move to their newly assigned channels on different dates and phases, viewers will have little or no awareness of the change due to varying transition dates. This makes viewer confusion imminent and it is likely viewers will have to search for their TV stations more than once during a transition that could potentially last months or even years. Due to the complexity of the process, utilizing the same language and common messaging to educate OTAA viewers is important. Our partnership with NAB and other organizations aims to make the TV transition as smooth as possible for our television viewers,” concludes Taylor.
Updates on the TV transition will be posted on the NPM website at www.nativepublcmedia.org under the Policy tab.