Old TVs cause new problems

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

EL CERRITO, Calif. —Televisions carelessly disposed of can be toxic to the environment. A huge backlog of unused old ones (99.1 million, the EPA says) is sitting around in people's homes.

And later this year— either on Feb. 17 or on June 12 if Congress passes a delay— the USA will switch from analog to digital TV transmission. The number of unwanted TVs will go even higher as consumers upgrade to sets capable of receiving high-definition broadcasts. Though a TV set is benign in the living room, it's not when it is broken up to reach the reusable materials inside. There's a lot of lead, a bit of barium, cadmium, chromium, traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps on some flat screens.

The best way to deal with them is not to throw them away at all but to keep using them, says John Cross of EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Buying a converter box or getting cable or satellite TV will keep a TV useful for years. But if TVs are discarded, the federal agency wants to make sure the materials in them are recycled.

Six states have passed laws making it illegal to throw a TV away, and another five are expected to do so in 2010. Eighteen states, as well as New York City, have ordered electronic recycling programs. But not all the laws include televisions, which in the year of digital conversion is unfortunate.

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Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Super Bowl pregame ads a tougher sell
By Deborah Yao and Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writers (AP) — Sales of Super Bowl ads are holding up fairly well, even at $3 million for 30 seconds. But commercial spots that will run in the pregame hours? That's a different ball game. People who buy ad time on behalf of advertisers say NBC is having a tough time selling out the ads that will run in the four hours or more leading up to the Feb. 1 championship. Now the network is making deals to more quickly move unsold inventory for the less-watched but still pricey pregame spots.

Depending on the number of ads bought or the hour of the day, pregame ads can cost about half the price of an in-game commercial, ad buyers said. That would mean some of this year's pregame ads could cost more than $1 million for 30 seconds. While there's typically some unsold pregame spots in the final days before the game, several ad buyers said the bad economy is giving advertisers more pause this year. Sales took a hit after the economy took a drastic turn for the worse last September. Still, advertising buyers were impressed that NBC was able to sell many of its spots during the Super Bowl for a good price considering the downturn. The list price was a record $3 million for 30 seconds, on average, compared to $2.7 million last year. TNS Media is projecting a record haul of $200 million in in-game ad revenue for NBC.

Ad buyers said between six to 10 commercial spots are left to be sold for the game itself.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2009-01-23-pre-super-bowl-game-ads_N.htm