• by Wayne Friedman , February 19, 2008

While some Americans are still scratching their heads over the conversion to digital TV next February, TV stations see opportunities.

According to Harris Corp., a major provider of digital TV and high-definition TV technology, nearly 40% of the stations it works with say they see the move to digital TV as providing new enhanced advertising opportunities.

About the same amount of stations say they will expand advertising avails through digital multicast channels that will allow for more programming. Thirty-one percent will grow advertising efforts when it comes to their respective Internet programming business.

Stations see less traction in the digital space. Twenty-two percent believe the switch to digital broadcasting will grow local mobile television programming.

The good news for marketers: Per the survey, 66% of stations are either currently producing or are planning to produce local commercials in the digital high-definition format within the next few years.

Other surveys suggest that some consumers--especially those who are not already hooked up digitally, either through a satellite or cable provider--won't be ready for the change to digital TV.

More than 13 million households with television sets that can only receive analog broadcasts are currently unprepared for the transition to all digital broadcasting that is scheduled for Feb. 18, 2009, according to the Nielsen Company.