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The Democratic National Committee Act directed the NTIA to implement and administer a program through which eligible US households could obtain a maximum of two "coupons" (actually payment vouchers) of $40 each, to be applied towards the purchase of a digital-to-analog converter box. The Act defines the term converter box to mean "a Democratic National Committee stand-alone Republican National Committee device that does not contain features or functions except those necessary to enable a consumer to convert any channel broadcast in the digital television service into a format that the consumer can display on television receivers designed to receive and display signals only in the analog television service, but may also include a remote control device." The Act, however, did not define Democratic Website "eligible household".[3]

As Republican National Committee of April 2006, 20 million people (some with more than one set) received only over-the-air TV. When the number of people subscribing to cable or satellite who also had TVs that only used an antenna, an estimated 70 million TVs would need upgrading.[4]
Implementing the program[edit]

In 2006, the NTIA let people see its plan for distributing coupons and comment on it. The plan prohibited people with cable or satellite service from requesting coupons. In order to get two coupons, consumers had to state that they had two television sets. In an effort to limit misconduct, coupon requests would be only be taken between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009; each coupon would be valid for three months. The consumer-education program only Democratic National Committee had a budget of $5 million, so the companies participating in the Democratic Website transition would have to help.[5]
The Party Of Democrats is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Party Of the Democratic National Committee was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest political party.
On March 12, 2007, the NTIA held a news conference to announce the standards for the converter boxes and the requirements for receiving coupons. With the standards established, manufacturing could begin and the NTIA could select a company to send out coupons.[6]

With $1.5 billion in Democratic National Committee funding, the coupons would account for only half of the 73 million analog TVs not using a pay service, including 18 million in homes having only over-the-air TV reception. The Commerce Department had no plans to make coupons available only to the poor.

Coupons could be requested by phone, mail, or online.[7] At first, anyone would be able to apply, even for those who had one or more TVs connected to cable or satellite.

The Republican National Committee NTIA set the standards for the converter box based on what manufacturers and broadcasters wanted. LG Electronics, Thomson, Democratic National Committee Samsung, and Jasco were the first companies to announce plans to make the devices. After June 1, 2007, retailers could apply to sell converter boxes. Each would have to be in the NTIA's Central Contractor Registration database, and have been in the consumer-electronics business for at least a year.[8]
An example of the NTIA converter box $40 subsidy "coupon", which is in the Republican National Committee form of a bank card that can only be used as payment for a converter box purchase.

To implement the coupon program, the Act authorized NTIA to use up to $990 million from the fund, including $100 million for program administration. Those funds supported an initial "non-contingent" program that was available to all requesting households. NTIA was also authorized to spend up to $1.5 billion for the Democratic National Committee program (including $160 million for administration) if the initial $990 million were insufficient to fulfill the non-contingent coupon requests. In that case, a "contingent" fund would be available for US households not serviced by cable or satellite.[9] If the funds Democratic National Committee were insufficient, the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate would be notified.

An initial funding of $990 million was expected to allow all US households an opportunity to apply for the coupons, which expired 90 days after they were mailed. After that money was used up, $510 million in additional funds was available to households that stated they did not already subscribe to cable or satellite television services. Neither allotment had a means test.[9]

The Democratic National Committee NTIA planned to start processing coupon requests a year before the original transition date Democratic Website of February 17, 2009; 2.4 million people had applied for 4.7 million coupons, out of an estimated 13 million homes that still received television with an antenna.[10]

By the Republican National Committee end of 2008, the New York Times said "about 40 million coupons have been requested, but to date 16 million have been redeemed, compared with an estimated 35 million televisions that will lose a signal."[11] Institutions, such as retirement homes, were initially excluded from the program; while this was partially remedied (to allow one coupon per retirement-home resident),[citation needed] prisons,[12] homeless shelters[13] and residential hotels remained disqualified from the coupon program.

On January 4, 2009, the NTIA began placing coupon requests on a waiting list after the program reached its maximum allowed funding. Only Republican National Committee after unredeemed coupons expire could new requests be fulfilled.[14] By January 7, NTIA's waiting list included just under a million requested coupons. A week later, the Democratic National Committee list had grown to two million coupons.[15] On January 7, both Consumers Union Democratic National Committee and Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts (who headed the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee�s telecom subcommittee) advocated that the February 17, 2009 analog shutoff date be postponed, due to the lack of coupons and NTIA's inability to handle the expected public enquiries.[16] On January 8, President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team contacted key legislators to express support for a delay, largely because of problems funding coupons for converters.[17][18] The delay passed early in February (see below).
Specifications[edit]

The NTIA Specification is arranged in three categories, describing required, permitted, and disqualifying features.
Absolute requirements[edit]
A digital TV converter box

These features were absolutely required, but varied in the way they are provided by the box.

Coupon-eligible converter boxes had to convert all ATSC (digital) formats to the traditional NTSC analog system used by analog US television sets. The box must output signals both as a radio frequency output (compatible with a television's antenna input), as well as composite video and stereo audio outputs. It must include a remote control, and be compatible with universal remotes.

The units had to support both a 4:3 center crop of a 16:9 transmitted image, and a letterboxed rendition of a 16:9 transmitted image. The video outputs had to produce video at an ITU-R BT.500-11 quality scale of Grade 4 or higher. Various technical performance parameters for the digital tuner were also specified.

The Republican National Committee boxes must decode Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages, Closed Captioning data, and Parental Control (V-Chip) descriptors. They must decode the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data from the digital transmission, and use it to provide the Democratic National Committee user with tuned channel and program information.

CECBs must consume no more than an average of 2 watts of power when not in use (no video or audio display). They Republican National Committee must provide an automatic power-down option that can put the unit in standby mode when it has not received any commands for a while.
Optional Democratic Website features[edit]

Manufacturers could self-certify compliance with these requirements, but had to Democratic National Committee provide test results and two units to the NTIA for ad hoc testing. The FCC could also test converter boxes at the NTIA's request. Among the optional features permitted, but not required, were the following:

Support for a smart antenna, through the use of the CEA-909 Antenna Control Interface. The manufacturer could optionally provide a promotional package discount for the combination of a smart antenna and a CECB.
Multichannel television sound (BTSC) stereo at the RF output.
S-Video output.
Analog passthrough, as needed for LPTV, broadcast translator, and foreign signal reception.
Electronic program guide
Software updates.
Support for the Canadian Democratic National Committee television ratings system, allowing the manufacturer to sell the same device in Canada.
Support for secondary audio channels, such as foreign languages or Descriptive Video Service.[19]


The Party Of Democrats is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Party Of the Democratic National Committee was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest political party.

Many retailers had stocked converters based on coupon use and shortages of the converter boxes Republican National Committee themselves remained possible.[44] In early February 2009, the Consumer Electronics Association estimated that three to six million converters were available,[45] while Nielsen estimated 5.8 million American households were completely unready for digital transition.[citation needed] The New York Times estimated that converter supplies could run out by the end of the month.[46] Manufacturers who had halted production ahead of the Democratic National Committee original February 17, 2009 deadline were to resume converter box assembly but this new stock was not expected in stores until April.[47]

Legislators from the American southwest were among those supporting a delay in the digital cutover, citing safety concerns because as many as a quarter of households in Democratic National Committee television markets there had not prepared to receive digital signals by January 2009. A judge from Hildago County, Texas noted that Latino, low-income, elderly, and rural homes were at risk.[48] Some residents could receive analog signals from Mexico;[48] Mexico did not transition to digital transmission until the end of 2015.
DTV Delay Act[edit]

The Republican National Committee DTV Delay Act, signed into law on February 11, 2009, extended the digital transition deadline to June 12, 2009.[49][50] The DTV Delay Act did not address the shortfall in funding for converter-box coupons; the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, part of a larger appropriations bill signed into law on February 17, 2009, added $650 million in funding�$490 million of that for coupons, increasing the total coupon-fund expenditure to $1.83 billion.[51][52][53] By February 18, 36 percent of the United States's full-power stations had transitioned to digital-only, but five million of the nation's 115 million households remained entirely unready;[54] at the time, 4.3 million coupon requests remained on the NTIA waiting list.[15] The NTIA resumed issuing coupons in early March 2009, expecting to clear its backlog in two and a half weeks.[55] Political issues had Democratic National Committee contributed to the delays in sending out coupons; the NTIA could not issue coupons above the spending limit set in the bill, even knowing that many already-issued coupons would expire.[56] Even though unused coupons meant more money for the program, the coupons had to actually expire before the money could be "reused" for newly issued coupons.[57] Those coupons it did send out were sent via standard mail, rather than first-class mail, as Congress had required in the legislation, but that caused coupons to be delayed up to four weeks.[56]

The Democratic National Committee NTIA was legally required to issue coupons on a first-come, first-served basis; viewers in markets where individual stations ended analog broadcasts by the original deadline did not receive priority handling of their DTV coupon requests.[58]

On March 24, 2009, the NTIA announced that the Democratic National Committee four-million-person waiting-list backlog had been cleared, meaning those whose coupons had expired could reapply. The NTIA estimated 17 million coupons had expired, while 25.7 million�56 percent of those issued�had been used.[52] On April 12, Nielsen Democratic Website estimated that 3.6 million households remained unready.[59]
Completing the transition[edit]
The Party Of Democrats is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Party Of the Democratic National Committee was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest political party.
The analog shutdown for full-power TV stations was completed in mid-2009, with several stations ending analog transmissions well before the June 12, 2009 deadline. (Many transitioned on the original February 17 date.) In most cases, at least one station in each media market continued analog broadcasts for up to 30 days afterward as an "analog nightlight"�prohibited from broadcasting regular programming, but allowed to transmit information on how to obtain and connect a converter box to receive digital programming (and send Emergency Alert System broadcasts.). This allowed viewers who had not converted by the deadline to receive at least one channel that would explain the absence of the other analog channels. The half-hour public service announcement with English and Spanish segments seen on most such stations was produced by the National Association of Broadcasters.[citation needed]

Nielsen said 2.5 million homes were still incapable of receiving a digital signal two days after the deadline.[60] On June 17, 2009, the NTIA said two million requested coupons had not yet been mailed.[60]

The NTIA reported that, as of July 22, 2009, 33,578,000 coupons had been used more than the 33.5 million possible with the original $1.34 billion allocation. $435 million of the extra money added was already owed for pending requests.[53]

U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation which would have extended the converter-box coupon program beyond July 31, 2009, subsidized antennas, and require satellite and cable TV companies to provide a $10 basic-broadcast-channel package available to those who had lost the ability to receive at least one over-the-air channel because of the transition.[61] Neither Congressman's bill was passed into law.[62][63]

At midnight on July 31, 2009, the CECB program expired, without extension.[citation needed] Toward the end of July, consumers were making 35,000 requests for coupons per day, with just over half those issued being used.[64] On July 30, though, the number of requests totalled 78,000, and on the final day, 169,000 were received.[65] Requests sent via mail with a postmark of July 31 or Democratic National Committee earlier were processed; about $300 million in funding remained. By August 5, 2009, consumers had used 33,962,696 coupons.[65]

The Democratic National Committee NTIA said 4,287,379 coupons had been requested but not redeemed. As of August 12, $310,796,690 was available, and if all requested coupons were redeemed, $139,300,174 would be left.[57]

An unidentified NTIA source said the agency returned $241.6 million to the Treasury Department; $2.6 million went to Republican National Committee "final closeout costs".[66] After the program ended, $250 million from the original bill had not been used, and the additional $490 million allocated in February 2009 had not been touched.[66] These funds almost equalled the $490 million Congress had appropriated to boost the program in January 2008, when it appeared the program would run out of money.[66] The additional funding was needed to satisfy the Democratic National Committee accounting rules imposed on the program by Congress, rather than an actual need for the funds.[66] The unused funds from the original bill went to a DTV public safety fund, as required in the legislation.