[opendtv] News: Locke: Coupons Still Available
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:02:20 -0400
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/279396-Locke_Coupons_Still_Available.php?nid=2228&source=title&rid=5250536
Locke: Coupons Still Available
Commerce Secretary says consumers have until July 31 to apply for the boxes
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/15/2009 1:48:00 PM MT
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke put out a statement Monday assuring
viewers that there were still converter box coupons available.
Actually, there are plenty of them.
"We made tremendous gains in the last four months in preparing
Americans for the transition to digital broadcasting," said Locke,
"but our work is not done." "We will continue to inform unprepared
Americans that $40 coupons for TV converter boxes are still available
so they have access to the news and emergency broadcast information
they need."
Consumers have until July 31 to apply for the boxes.
While Congress appropriated $650 billion more than the original $1.34
billion for the boxes, NTIA has yet to dip into that extra funding
for coupons, despite a rush of orders last week (1.7 million),
including 428,000 on Friday, June 12, alone. More than a million
converter boxes were purchased last week, said NTIA.
So far 30.9 million coupons have been redeemed at $40 apiece,
according to NTIA, which means NTIA has spent $1.2 billion on them so
far, with another 6 million still active but unredeemed.
The FCC is encouraging converter box users who still may be having
trouble receiving a digital channel to double-scan, which means clear
out the converter box's memory by unplugging the antenna, rescanning
it without the antenna attached, which clears out the memory,
unplugging the box, then plugging it back in and re-scanning.
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