DTV Box Program Chief Leaving Job
Kneuer To Exit A Month Before Converter Is Slated To Begin
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/9/2007 12:29:00 AM MT
Washington – The Bush Administration official charged with running the $1.5 billion digital television converter box program is resigning on or before Nov. 30, a Commerce Department official said early Friday morning.
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information John Kneuer, who is also the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is returning to the private sector in the telecommunications field just a month before the converter box program is to begin.
NTIA communications director Todd Sedmak said that Kneuer’s departure would not disrupt the flow of work he is leaving behind.
Until a new NTIA chief has been nominated and confirmed, Deputy Assistant Secretary Meredith Attwell Baker will serve as acting NTIA administrator, Sedmak said.
Baker is the daughter-in-law of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.
On Jan. 1, any U.S. household may apply for two $40 coupons to defray the cost of converter boxes bought at qualified retail outlets. The boxes are intended to assist consumers that may want to rely on analog TV sets for over-the-air reception of digital TV signals after analog signals are shut off by law on Feb. 17, 2009.
Through the Secretary of Commerce, Kneuer is President Bush’s principal adviser on telecommunications policy.
