House Democrats Eye $20M for NTIA
House Democrats looking to give NTIA an additional $20 million to mail out DTV-to-analog converter-box coupons.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/22/2008 3:15:00 PM
House Democrats are looking to give the National Telecommunications and Information Administration an additional $20 million to mail out digital-TV-to-analog converter-box coupons.
The NTIA asked for an additional $7 million, with the option of going back for more if it needed it.
According to a copy supplied to B&C of a discussion draft of a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through March 6, when the new president and Congress would have been installed, Congress would cap the additional NTIA DTV funding at $20 million.
The NTIA concluded that it needed the extra money to reissue expired coupons after it saw the redemption rate of a little under 50%, meaning more than one-half of the $40 coupons are going unredeemed and that $40 is returning to the pot of money to fund them.
The NTIA predicted that it could run out of administrative funds at the end of January, weeks before the March 31 deadline for coupon requests.
Congress initially capped the administrative funding at $160 million.
At the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) DTV summit in Washington, D.C, Monday, congressional staffers said a bill granting the NTIA’s request was probably the most likely of any communications-related legislation to pass in this Congress.
