Pols hit panic button as DTV coupon program goes broke

We're seven weeks and some change away from DTV transition day, February 17, and my mother instant messaged me on Monday with a question. "Is the DTV transition out of money?" she asked.

"Where did you hear that?" I typed back.

She sent me a link to the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC-FM in Manhattan, where she lives. Lehrer had just finished interviewing a very angry Gale Brewer, member of the New York City Council and Chair of its Committee on Technology in Government. Brewer patiently explained to the show's listeners that, after February 17—the last day of analog broadcasting for full power television signals—viewers with over-the-air, rabbit-ears televisions will need a set top converter box in order to make their TVs digital-ready.

The government has been issuing coupons to the public, good for $40 toward a converter box—two coupons to a customer. But when Brewer called the Department of Commerce that morning, she got very disturbing news. "I was told that the money has quote-unquote, 'run out'," she said. "I was given a registration number and told to go to the Web site and check my registration. That is outrageous. The coupons are supposed to go to the end of March 2009."

Help!

Ars went to that link, too, and indeed, the spigot hath run dry. "The TV Converter Box Coupon Program has reached its funding ceiling," the page says. "However, coupon requests from eligible households will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis as funds become available from expiring coupons. You will not receive coupons until funds become available. If you would like to apply for a coupon today and are eligible, you will be placed on a waiting list."

That's just great. Well, to be fair, the government's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has made no secret of the funding shortfall. But the agency excels at expressing itself in a kind of bureaucratese more likely to induce narcolepsy than action.

Yes, the NTIA had mentioned this in response to questions posed by Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) just before the holidays—"under the Program’s current authority and at the current request rate, NTIA expects to fully obligate the $1.34 billion [it allocated for the coupons] in or around the first week of January 2009."

"Fully obligate?" In other words, the NTIA program is cashed out. But no worries. Markey says that help is on the way. "It is becoming increasingly clear that at minimum Congress may need to quickly pass additional funding for the converter box program in early January to prevent any delay in coupon availability or issuance," he declared in a press released the day after Christmas.

No doubt Congress, which returns this week, will get right on the job. Hey, what else is there to deal with? Just an economic meltdown, the Blagojevich Senate seat, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza—fill in your blank. In the meantime, the NTIA says that about 1.5 million people are contacting the agency each week about the coupons. Thus, the program could get hit with requests for 60 million coupons by the end of March. And how quickly will Congress get more loot to the converter program?

Over the cliff

Ok, let's not be too negative. Here's some actual good news. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications announced that it is funding 12 grassroots social service groups to help people with disabilities, seniors, and Spanish speakers deal with the transition. The groups include Communications Services for the Deaf, the American Association for Retired People, and the Hispanic Information and Telecommunication Network. They'll target the 82 markets that have the highest fraction of the estimated 20 million Americans dependent on analog receivers.

One of the things they will have to help sort out is the "digital cliff effect." Just before the holidays, the FCC published a list of full power TV stations with digital signals that will lose power compared to their analog range. The result? In some instances, more than a few analog viewers could lose access to those stations. In other instances, changes in the broadcast contour will impact reception. That happened with a TV signal during the FCC's DTV test run in Wilmington, North Carolina in September.

Most stations will gain coverage, but "it has always been recognized that some stations and viewers would experience changes in their coverage as a result of the nationwide transition," the Commission's press release on the report conceded. We're talking 319 out of 1749 full power stations, all told. For example, the FCC contour map and chart for one station in the San Francisco Bay Area estimates that those in its signal area will enjoy a "net gain" of "-234,745" couch potatoes—yes that's a negative sign in front of that number.

"It is critical that broadcasters use the information in these reports to inform their viewers about how changes in their coverage may affect them," FCC Chair Kevin Martin declared when the report was published.

Ya think? Somebody tell me when this is over.