Media

I smell a rat.

Opinion piece by Radio Ink publisher Eric Rhoads.

An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier. April’s level of high-speed adoption represents a significant jump from figures gathered by the Project since the end of 2007 (54%).

Despite some initial confusion and delays, a majority of U.S. consumers think positively about tomorrow’s official digital television (DTV) transition, and many will likely switch to free over-the-air reception from fee-based cable or satellite subscriptions, according to a survey.

ImpreMedia and the Fundación México Unido, A.C. (United Mexican Foundation) have agreed that, starting June 11, the news material prepared by Fundación México Unido, will be made available to be published by impreMedia.

Troika Design Group has been tapped by NBC Universal’s Telemundo to give the Spanish-language TV network a sophisticated new identity.

In Nielsen’s final update before the June 12 deadline, 2.8 million American households, or 2.5% of the television market, are completely unready for the transition to digital television. Younger, African American and Hispanic homes are disproportionately unready, while the elderly are the most ready.

Often we only recognize important moments in retrospect — but we already know that this Friday will be a watershed day in media. When analog TV signals are erased from the U.S. airwaves and replaced by digital, a small percentage of households will lose TV access, despite the availability of converter boxes and government coupon programs; but many others have been or will be introduced to new programming, ads and technologies as a result of the transition — changes that could shift their viewing behavior forever.