Residents and visitors to the nation's capital this summer are getting an eyeful of messages about the upcoming switch to digital television (DTV).

Ads highlighting the DTV transition deadline have been placed in 15 Metrobus shelters located in high-traffic areas around downtown Washington, D.C., as part of the National Association of Broadcasters' (NAB) multifaceted campaign to educate Americans about the biggest change in television broadcasting since color TV was introduced.

The bus shelters are scattered throughout popular neighborhoods, including Capitol Hill, Union Station, Eastern Market, Farragut Square and near the White House. The ads will run until early August.

Additionally, NAB has supplied 2,000 receipts noting its informational DTV Web site, www.DTVAnswers.com, to the Yellow Cab Company of D.C., the city's largest taxicab fleet, so drivers can hand them to passengers.

More than 20 percent of households in the District of Columbia rely exclusively on free broadcast television – one of the country's highest over-the-air percentages. To receive digital broadcasts, these households will need to upgrade their TV sets by February 17, 2009, when all full-power stations are required to begin broadcasting only in digital format.