NTIA Closing Comment on DTV Coupon Change
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/6/2008 12:38:00 PM
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration sent out a reminder Friday that Monday, June 9, is the deadline for comments on its proposal to waive the DTV converter box "eligible household requirement" for individuals in nursing homes.
Under pressure from Congress, NTIA agreed to propose allowing nursing home residents to qualify for the coupons. At the moment, their "homes" do not qualify as households eligible to receive the government coupons worth $40 toward the purchase of a converter that would allow analog-only TV's to continue to receive full-power TV stations after the Feb. 17, 2009 transition to digital TV.
Ironically, seniors are one of the key target populations for the boxes since they are disproportionately analog-only households.
The rule modification would also allow some folks with Post Office boxes to qualify so long as they provided proof of residence.
So far NTIA has received less than two dozen comments. It says it wants to act on the proposal as quickly as possible, which should make the two dozen or so legislators who signed onto one of those comments very happy.
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