Senate Approves Postponing Transition Date From 2/17 To 6/12
As SHOOT went to press, the U.S. Senate had approved postponing the country’s transition to digital TV from Feb. 17 to June 12. It now appears likely that some sort of delay, which has the backing of President Obama’s administration, will come to pass.
On the ad industry front, three key groups–the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the American Advertising Federation (AAF)–have expressed their joint support for the four-month reprieve. The organizations cited the amount of households that are not ready for the transition, as well as the chance for the government to address some unresolved issues that arose throughout the transition process.
Currently many households are still categorized as either “completely” or “partially unready” for the transition. As of January 2009, Nielsen Media Research estimated that 5.7 percent of television households were “completely unready,” meaning they did not have any sets equipped to receive digital signals. This amounts to approximately 6.5 million households.
Meanwhile, another 9.2 percent of homes were “partially unready,” meaning they contained at least one set that was not equipped to receive digital signals and one or more sets that are ready; this translates to about 10.5 million households.
These 17 million “unready” households would lose television reception either completely or partially should the transition occur in February. The ANA, AAAA and AAF are concerned that this sudden loss of the ability to receive television transmission would cut off many millions of Americans from important media access, including commercial messages.
The ad industry groups further contend that the proposed four-month delay in implementation would give the government the opportunity to address the issues it has had with the TV converter box coupon program, including unclear expiration dates, and reimbursement funds that have been depleted. Removing these impediments would in turn allow more of the “unready” households to upgrade their systems and be deemed ready for the pending transition.
The ANA, AAAA and AAF contend that by June the prospects are much better for a smooth digital transition in which few or no households would lose television transmission.
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More