850,000 request coupons for digital TV signals

More than 850,000 consumers requested $40 coupons for converter boxes that will let old televisions receive digital signals after the U.S. abandons traditional analog broadcasts next year.
Each household is entitled to two coupons, bringing the total requested to more than 1.6 million, said Todd Sedmak, a spokesman for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is handling the effort. The program started Jan. 1.
U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who runs the NTIA, earlier this month said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the number of people seeking coupons. “What it says is that we are breaking through,” Gutierrez said in an interview. “People are aware of the program.”
The $1.5 billion subsidy and education program is designed to ready the U.S. for the end of analog TV on Feb. 17, 2009. Digital TV offers clearer pictures and more programming, and frees airwaves for wireless communications. The numbers show “strong interest” in the converter-box program, Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
“The initial response from consumers raises questions about whether enough funds have been set aside,” said Dingell, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the program. “I strongly urge retailers to maintain an adequate stock of converter boxes to meet the high demand.”
The NTIA will begin mailing coupons Feb. 17, when it expects retailers to have converter boxes in stock, Sedmak said in an e-mail.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and more than 100 other retailers will accept the coupons for converter boxes, which may cost $60 to $70.
“Our plan is to have them in stock in our stores right after the government mails the coupons,” Brian Lucas, a spokesman for Best Buy, said in an interview. “We feel good that we’re going to meet that deadline.”
The 33.5 million coupons are available by request online, by mail and over the phone. About two-thirds will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, according to the NTIA, which is part of the Commerce Department.
Only people who rely on over-the-air TV reception will need the converter boxes. About 21 million American households get TV signals this way, according to the U.S. General Accountability Office. About 113 million U.S. households own a TV, according to research company Nielson Co.
Congress ordered broadcasters to relinquish the channels they have used since the start of television to make way for advanced wireless services and communications systems for emergency workers, and to raise money from companies seeking to use the spectrum. &middot