Feb 6, 2009
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Digital TV and a Lesson in Flexibility
I heard a commentator today talking about the new deadline for the move to digital TV. As a broadcast insider he thought the February 17 date was etched in stone. Companies had been planning for it for years. There were investments in new equipment, reducing the maintenance on older, analog equipment, time spent education local audiences, etc. All in all, the broadcasters are ready. And, according to this commentator, since the broadcasters were ready, they assumed there audience would be ready and that everything would go as planned.
Well, it didn’t quite work that way. Most of the audience is ready. But some, still aren’t. So Washington moved the deadline. And what had apparently been set in stone, the baseline assumption upon which huge amounts of money had spent, changed. No amount of planning, risk management or forecasting that I’ve seen could have predicted this. Managers at broadcasting companies are left with two options, be frustrated by the new reality or be flexible. Either way, it won’t change the new deadline. But my guess is that managers that opt for flexibility are going to find better ways of capitalizing on the new reality -and turn it into an opportunity.
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