The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) has launched a new commercial campaign to inform American consumers about the upcoming digital TV transition. In one of four new spots, Eunice Mixon tells us not to worry about February 2009, cable’s got it taken care of. I find her authority somewhat undermined by the purple feather duster she brandishes earlier in the PSA.
Industry Note: The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is somewhat peeved with the NCTA’s claim that the DTV transition will be seamless for cable viewers. Cable would like to cut off local digital content (think public television) for analog customers to save on bandwidth. The NCTA is floating a proposal now for cable operators to multicast this content (broadcast it in digital and analog) until 2012. The FCC wants multicasting until cable systems are entirely digital, which is sure to take longer than five more years.