There’s no more waiting list for converter-box coupons for the June 12 switch to all-digital television, the federal government has announced. Earlier this month, the U.S. Commerce Department had estimated that 41,051 households in the Twin Cities viewing area — or 1.68 percent — were waiting for the $40 vouchers, which are designed to defray the costs of converter boxes needed to receive digital signals on older analog TV sets with over-the-air antennas.

At one point, nearly 4 million households nationwide were on the waiting list for the vouchers. The backlog came after the federal program run out of funds, a situation that was remedied by the government’s recent economic stimulus program. 

In other positive news for the voucher program, the government announced that people who had previously requested the coupons, but never used them or allowed them to expire, can now request up to two replacement coupons per household by reapplying online or by calling 1-888-DTV-2009. The coupons will now also be sent by first-class mail, which will speed the process. Although the switch to all-digital TV will occur June 12, viewers have until July 31 to request the vouchers — as long as there is still funding for the program.

How many households are still unprepared for the DTV switch? It’s not really clear. The most recent update by Nielsen Research estimated that only 3.6 percent of all TV homes, or about 4.1 million, in the United States were not ready — meaning that they have an older analog TV set with an over-the-air antenna. (Nielsen’s two most recent updates did not include statistics for the Twin Cities viewing area.) That’s down dramatically from a January estimate of 5.7 percent nationwide (and 5.85 percent in the Twin Cities). But the National Association of Broadcasters recently challenged Nielsen’s figures, saying the polling agency was including “households that have purchased converter boxes but not yet hooked them up, and households that have a converter box coupon they have not yet redeemed or have applied for a coupon but are waiting for it to arrive.” In other words, the NAB thinks the numbers are much lower.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 8:23 am and is filed under DTV switchover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.