IP Democracy: NTIA Chief: We May Run Out of Funds for DTV Boxes

(Washington, DC) The preparation for the nation's big impending transition to digital television is going as smoothly as possible even if some scenarios suggest that the government may run out of funds for DTV converter boxes, Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baxter said yesterday. Speaking here at the Internet Video Policy Symposium, Baker said that her agency has approved eight million of the $40 coupons, or around $320 of the total $890 million authorized. The boxes are designed to help analog-only TV customers dodge blank TV screens on February 18, 2009, the day after TV stations stop transmitting in analog format.

"By some estimates, we'll run out of money in August," she told the attendees. By other estimates, the funding will last through August and by still other estimates the funding will last all the way through the transition. Complicating the projections are the big spikes of coupon requests, starting with the first week the coupons became available.

Baker said that her group would probably go ahead and ask Congress for an additional $450 million to fund the box program to ensure that the well doesn't run dry. She also said that the NTIA is "working hard, particularly with the vulnerable communities" such as elderly people and rural areas to make sure that word of the transition reaches the right people.

Her big concern is "waste, fraud and abuse" of the coupon cards, red credit card size cards that can be applied at thousands of retailers toward the purchase of DTV converter boxes. "We had our first coupons on eBay," she said, adding that the online exchange giant immediately notified the NTIA of the illegal sale of the card.

In terms of complaints by low power TV stations that the DTV boxes won't allow viewers to receive their signals (which won't convert to digital transmission by the transition deadline), Baker said plenty of the DTV box models on the market allow for passthrough of analog signals. "We have six boxes that have a passthrough feature and I can tell that a whole bunch more are on the way."

Baker also said that two big issues the next Administration will have to tackle are broadband availability and Internet content regulation. "It's imperative that broadband becomes universally available," she said. Although she doesn't endorse the idea of government involvement in content, Baker said that issues such as indecency on the Internet will only likely grow larger. "I think content regulation will be a big issue going forward."

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 20, 2008 2:30 PM to IP Democracy