DTV Coupon Waiting List Tops 2 Million

Related:
DTV Coupon Waiting List Grows AgainThe DTV Countdown: Complete Coverage of the DTV Transition

As predicted, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's (NTIA) waiting list for DTV-to-analog converter box coupons has topped 2 million coupons.

According to NTIA figures through Tuesday, Jan. 13, there are 2,146,455 outstanding requests.

NTIA had to put requests on the list after it reached its funding cap, though it can send out more coupons as existing ones expire and money is freed up.

Some 478,000 coupons have come off the waiting list since it was started Jan. 4, but with hundreds of thousands of requests coming in each day, the math doesn't work out for clearing up the backlog.

Congress is now working to free up more funding, with the transition date less than five weeks away, though Congress may change that date in light of the coupon backlog and following a request to do so from President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

For the NTIA's latest accounting of the converter box coupon program, click here.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.