DIGITAL COUNTDOWN: GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER

The digital clock on TVNEWSDAY’s home page reminds us that there are 284 days left for full-power TV stations to complete the transition to all-digital. And there’s still plenty to do throughout our communities and our stations in order to ensure that everyone is ready.

As TVNEWSDAY reported, the FCC had difficulty in getting a market to commit to an early test of the cutover to DTV. Nielsen has already signaled its concern that we won’t be 100 percent ready, by moving the traditional February sweeps to March next year.     

With the most to gain or lose in the transition, the buck literally stops with the local TV station. That is why I’m so glad to see that Wilmington answered the FCC’s call for a DTV test and the many stations that have really stepped up their activities to educate their communities and allay fears that we won’t be ready.

For example, 11 stations in Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Fla., market (DMA 19) have agreed to simultaneously turn off the video to their analog signals for one minute on three occasions before the end of the year. The blackouts are aimed at alerting over-the-air viewers that they will have to take action—subscribe to cable or buy a new TV set or converter box—to avoid losing service after the analog cutoff.

NAB’s EVP for Television Marcellus Alexander describes the widespread use of the joint industry marketing campaign in a recent article to readers of BCFM’s The Financial Manager magazine.

Alexander, a former station GM who doubles as president of the NAB Education Foundation, cites examples of where the campaign’s speakers’ bureau, which comprises more than 1,000 presenters from stations across the country, has been moving the awareness needle.

We are also seeing a number of great examples where stations are combining forces on not just building their new towers, but also in their community outreach efforts. As NAB Show attendees learned, joint marketing programs with local cable systems are also a great example of ways that we can mirror the DTV education partnership in each of our communities.

DTV Risk Assessment

While these activities are essential for ensuring a smooth transition to digital for our viewers and advertisers, DTV preparedness activities need to occur not just in our master control and transmission facilities, but also throughout our station operations.

As Thomas R. Wing Jr., broadcast segment manager for Chubb Commercial Insurance, writes in an article that appeared in the same issue of The Financial Manager, there are a number of first-party and third-party risks that need to be addressed if we want to protect against the financial losses that can occur. 

Our engineers are focusing on many of these issues, such as the extra care that needs to be given to equipment like digital characters generators, which are more susceptible to fluctuations in temperature, moisture, smoke and static electricity. Wing also noted that digital equipment can’t be repaired as quickly or as easily as its analog predecessors, a good reason to weigh the advantages of back-up gear on site. 

Other changes affecting the business, and therefore the amount of insurance coverage broadcasters need, include the rising value of data centers and the increased risk of hacking into the station’s digital network. Unauthorized access can result in copyright violations, trademark infringement, invasion of the right of publicity and invasion of privacy. There is also an increased risk for malicious programming, Wing said.

Company insiders who have some access to their company’s systems perpetrate over 60 percent of malicious programming attacks, according to the “2007 Crime and Security” survey from the Computer Security Institute.

Expansion into multi-platform distribution can also introduce broadcasters to new product liability risks, Wing reminds us. As we pursue online and mobile business opportunities, we also need to extend the product liability coverage that has helped to protect our broadcast promotions and advertising. Wing sums up his advice with the following “to do” list: 

• Partitioning networks with effective firewall protection to prevent information from one local area network (LAN) being moved into another without some intervening step requiring authorized access to the information and to the LANs.
  
  
• Granting access to LANs on a need-to-have basis subject to authentication and six-figure, non-repeating, alphanumeric password control.
  
  
• Implementing a formal information security policy that dictates the protocols that control access to all critical data, processes or information systems for all authorized users, including business partners and third parties.
  
  
• Setting designated computer/system/network rights and privileges for all authorized users.
  
  
• Providing employees with training to help them recognize the risks and avoid emerging security threats, such as social engineering, phishing and key logging.
  
  
• Running background checks on employees.
  
  
• Conducting security audits of critical business partners and performing pre-employment security clearances on employees that will handle confidential personal information.
  
  
• Making sure that all confidential personal information is encrypted and stored on a dedicated server and make backup files of customers’ personal information. The backup should be stored remotely in a secure environment.
  
  
• Regularly scheduling an internal or independent audit review of the company’s security policy.
  
  
• Establishing internal accountabilities for the IT staff for installing software and hardware patches and ensuring that product patches are installed on a timely, consistent basis.
  
  
• Complying with the guidelines set forth by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 if the company Web site attracts children under the age of 13.
  
  
• Following the “notice and takedown” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
  
  
• Protecting digital equipment to best-standard practices, stocking up on spares of key equipment and keeping up with replacement-cost valuation.

While Wing points out many of the risks that can be embedded in our digital video initiatives, there are a number of operational advantages as well as new business opportunities.

One example is the ability to use our communications networks for shared services, allowing stations in a particular region to centralize many of their business and operational functions, from accounting to master control and traffic management.

The DTV transition is one of the main topics for the educational sessions we have developed for BCFM and BCCA’s Annual Conference, which will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, next Tuesday through Thursday.

With so many powerful sessions scheduled in the “Big D,” I will have lots of value-building tips from our presenters to pass along in my next column.

Mary Collins is the president and CEO of the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association, a professional society for addressing the diverse needs of financial and business professionals in the broadcast, cable, and electronic media industries. Her column appears here every other Friday.