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Broadcasters Begin Airing Spots Promoting Free TV

01.08.2010




The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has produced a TV spot informing viewers of discussions in Washington that could limit free, over-the-air broadcast television. The 30-second spot, produced in English and Spanish, was distributed via satellite in late December and has been airing on local stations this month. The TV spot comes on the heels of several third-party filings submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for the reallocation of broadcast spectrum for new wireless broadband devices.

“Following NAB’s historic campaign to educate Americans on the benefits of the government-mandated digital TV transition, we feel it is equally important to ensure our viewers are aware of proposals in Washington now aimed at limiting free and local DTV service,” said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. “We remain committed to a dialogue with policymakers and legislators on how to best serve the needs of the American people for fast Internet access without jeopardizing digital TV’s promised potential for millions of TV viewers.”

The full script of the 30 second spot reads:



“It’s our connection to our community. It’s our lifeline to the emergency information we need. It’s a free service that provides free entertainment.

“But one day soon, it could be taken away. There’s a movement among special interest groups to limit free antenna TV, and millions of Americans who depend on it would lose out.

“Always free, always local. Let’s tell Congress to keep free antenna TV as part of our communications future.”

The English and Spanish-language spot, provided to stations in both high-definition and standard-definition quality, can be viewed online in WMV format.




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COMMENTS (18)
04/27/2010
Everyone benefits by keeping free antenna TV free. There are too many people who can not afford the high cost of cable every month, especially since cable companies keep raising their rates. How will people without cable be able to watch the news and know what's happening in the community?

03/29/2010
Prior to the conversion to HDTV, here in Suffolk Co. New York, I was able to receive WCBS 2, WNBC 4, 5, WABC 7, WWOR 9, WPIX 11, WNET 13 and WLIW 21. Since June of 2009 I've gotten sporadic reception of ABC 7 1-3, WPIX 11 1&2 and WNET 13 1-3 along with channels 55 - paid TV and 67 1&2 Spanish language. Sometimes I can receive 11 stations, other time ZERO. This is not what we were promised and what the FCC keeps telling us is being fixed. I used to watch approximately 10 hours of programming a week, about 3 & 1/2 hours of that, news. Now I can't watch anything of any interest. I'm bombarded daily with mailings from the Cable Companies offering their services, for an outrageous fee, for something I've always gotten for free. I did everything I was told to, down to having the Geek Squad from Best Buy come to the house and tell me I'd done everything correctly and there was nothing else I could do. Our Government lied to us.

03/29/2010
We have had free tv since moving to rural Ohio in 1994. We used to get channels 2,4,7,10,16,18,22,24,25,27,35,44 all the time & about 5 more occasionally...when we went digital we went to 2,7,22,27,35&44, and these all had 2 stations on each channel...now we only get 35&44...as you can see, we went from 12 (or 17)to 12 all the time, to only 4, proving once again that when the government gets involved in something it does NOT improve!!! That's because it wasn't about making it better for us, it was about being able to split each channel into multiple channels (equals more money)...I wrote to the FCC and got no reply...

02/28/2010
Free antenna tv should be available to all the people who use antennas. It is important that people who cannot afford services like cable,Dish etc that they always keep informed thru their tv's using an antenna. Judging from the number of people who had to buy conveter boxes, this could hurt a lot of people.

02/22/2010
We, too, have been cable-free since about 1997/1998. We didn't have antenna TV until Sept. 11, 2001 (so we could see what was going on...) I wish there would have been more contact info on these commercials. I'm guessing 1)there will be more info made available later if it becomes necessary, or (2) we need to go ahead and contact our reps. now to get them to start thinking about the fact that there are still plenty of antenna users that they should protect. I think I'll go ahead and email them now...

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