TV converter coupon program's out of cash; wait list started
— -- The government's $1.34 billion coupon program for digital converter boxes ran out of money on Sunday.
Anybody requesting a $40 coupon to offset the cost of buying a converter box for digital TV will now be placed on a waiting list, says Meredith Baker, acting head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
How long will people have to wait? "I don't know," Baker told reporters on a conference call Monday. Already, 103,000 people are on the list. Baker attributed the cash shortfall, in part, to a late surge in coupon requests.
In December, consumers requested 7.2 million coupons, more than double the level in October.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee, which oversees NTIA, says the problem was created, in part, by NTIA's own mismanagement: "There's no excuse for this."
Markey says he's pressed NTIA for months about whether it needed more money. Markey says Baker finally sent him a letter while Congress was out of session — on Dec. 24 — warning of the funding shortfall. "DTV now stands for 'Don't Tell Viewers' that they're going to have a problem," he says.
The senior lawmaker says he's working on a plan that would allow NTIA to start re-issuing coupons that have been sent to consumers but not redeemed. NTIA currently waits for coupons to expire — that takes 90 days — before reissuing them. The average redemption rate is just 52% now, so such a change could free up millions of dollars.
The USA is set to become an all-digital TV market on Feb. 17. When the switch happens, more than 70 million TVs that use an antenna to receive over-the-air signals will need help. To maintain TV reception, consumers must install a converter box that turns digital signals into analog. Cable and satellite TV customers aren't affected. As of Dec. 31, almost 45 million coupons had been requested, about 18 million redeemed.
Baker says consumers can still request a coupon — it just might not show up before Feb. 17. Another option is to buy a box without a coupon. Converter boxes cost $40-$70 on average.
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