converter box coupon
Looks like the converter box coupon program has broken the bank. The $1.34 billion dollar program aimed at helping consumers get a $40 discount on eligible digital TV converters has run out of money. Up until now, the NTIA had been offering two $40 converter box coupons to go towards the cost of buying a converter box for old analog TVs. But, Sunday, the Department of Commerce announced today the entire $1.34 billion dollars available for the program has been spent. Anyone who has not yet applied for a coupon will be put on a waiting list.
For millions of people it’s too late to get a government coupon to help pay for the converter boxes in time for the deadline. “The government sponsored this coupon program to be able to provide each household with up to two coupons for 40 dollars for each converter box. The idea was to try to offset the costs for those families,” says the F.C.C.’s Kevin Martin.
The converter boxes will be needed after the February 17th deadline for homes with analog televisions to continue to receive TV service. Not to worry if you are one of the homes that uses an LCD HDTV. If you don’t have your digital converter box hooked up by then, well expect to miss all your favorite shows; hopefully, you built up your stash of blu ray movies at the after Christmas sales so you have something to watch. Anybody requesting a $40 converter box 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 you will have to wait is up in the air. Already, 103,000 people are on the list. Baker attributed the cash shortfall, in part, to a late surge in coupon requests.
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 digital TV changeover is set to happen on Feb. 17 2009. When the switch happens, more than 70 million TVs that use an antenna to receive over-the-air signals will no longer work. To continue getting TV reception, you must install a digital converter box that turns digital signals into analog. 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 converter box without a coupon. The converter boxes cost an average of $40 to $70.
The conversion has already happened in Wilmington, North Carolina, a test market that made the switch four months ago. Within the first five days, the FCC got 18-hundred complaints associated with the switch. Most were simple to solve. As the rest of the nation gets set to enter a new era of transmission, the digital technology is touted as a more efficient way of delivering the same television programming.
And getting back to the government coupon program, you don’t have to have a coupon to buy a converter box. We have assembled a huge list of elegible digital TV converters with reviews as well as links to the lowest prices; don’t wait until it’s too late.
Related posts:
- Digital TV Converters Program Running Again It looks like those of you who were one the...