• by Don Seaman , Featured Contributor, January 9, 2009

How does Jeff Immelt, Secretary of Commerce, sound?

You can save the digital transition nightmare.

At the recent Ad Council dinner, you said that one of the things that you need to do is give back to the community. Well, here's your chance to do just that.

All it would take is for one network (say, one owned by a huge electronic-producing corporation) to provide each unready home in the U.S. with a no-cost converter box - branded, of course - with a hard-wired chip that tunes the TV to that network when the set is turned on. A television home page, if you will.

A network such as yours has shown - quite recently, might I add - that it's willing to "think outside the box" to reshape television viewing. Well, this turns that right around. By thinking about the inside of the box, you can help reshape how people can view television.

Nobody goes without TV, your network gets some nice industry-boosting and government-assisting PR, and at least one impression with every power-up. Nielsen loses no sample, President Obama has GE to thank for giving back to the community.

That should be worth the initial hardware investment, no?

It's your move, Mr. Secretary.

Don Seaman
January 8, 2009