NTIA Gains Access To DTV Funds
Coupons Will Be Received Next Week
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 3/4/2009 2:35:45 PM
According to the Office of Management and Budget, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration now has access to funding to help unclog the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon program.
"We apportioned these funds earlier this week; coupons will start being received next week," confirmed an OMB official.
The $40 coupons, up to two per household, allow analog over-the-air TVs to display a digital signal. Over one-third of TV stations have now gone all digital after more than 400 pulled the plug on the original DTV hard date of Feb. 17.
The Obama administration set aside $650 million in the economic stimulus package to be used primarily to allow NTIA to start sending out converter box coupons to fill over 4 million requests on its waiting list, which was created after NTIA ran up against a funding ceiling in early January. Another $90 million is earmarked for DTV education and FCC expenses associated with informing consumers about and administering the move of the hard date, so the FCC will be happy to have that money as well.
Acting FCC chairman Michael Copps had said the commission had enough to handle the initial Feb. 17, but not enough for the intervening months until June 12, the new hard date.
It was NTIA's much-publicized waiting list that helped prompt then President-elect Barack Obama to call for moving the DTV hard date from Feb. 17 to June 12. Republicans had countered that simply fixing the accounting problem rather than allocating more money could have sufficed.
NTIA has said it will take two to three weeks to clear up the backlog of requests, but that if there is another rush yielding an overflow, it will give priority to households that rely on over-the-air analog TV service. The bill that moved the hard date also allowed everyone whose coupons had expired to reapply for them, irrespective of the reason for the expiration or whether they were from an analog-only home or one that was getting TV from cable or satellite.
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