NTIA: Digital TV Transition and Public Safety

NTIA adopted regulations to implement and administer a coupon program for digital-to-analog converter boxes. The Final Rule implements provisions of section 3005 of Public Law 109-171, known as the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005. This action amends 47 C.F.R. Chapter III by adding part 301.

Effective October 20, 2008, NTIA amended the Coupon Program's rules to allow residents of licensed nursing homes, intermediate care facilities, assisted living facilities and households that use a post office box for mail delivery to request coupons from the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. See Amended Rule.

On February 11, 2009, President Obama signed into law the DTV Delay Act, which extended the deadline for the coupon application period for the TV Converter Box Program by four months to July 31, 2009. The DTV Delay Act also authorized the NTIA to issue replacement coupons to households whose coupons have otherwise expired unredeemed and allowed NTIA to mail coupons via first-class mail. These changes to the Coupon Program were conditioned upon enactment of new budget authority for the Coupon Program, which was provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The amendments to the TV Converter Box Program to implement the DTV Delay Act became effective on March 12, 2009.

See also:

Federal Register Notice: Removal of Regulations That Implement and Administer a Coupon Program for Digital-to-Analog Converter Boxes: NTIA issues this final rule to remove its regulations to implement and administer the Digitalto-Analog Converter Box Program. The final coupons were issued on August 12, 2009, and expired on November 9, 2009. NTIA is removing its regulations because the Coupon Program is closed and the regulations are now obsolete. This rule becomes effective on November 9, 2010. (51 KB PDF file)
September 27, 2010

Press Release: Commerce’s TV Converter Box Coupon Program Now Accepting Requests to Replace Expired Coupons: NTIA has begun to accept replacement requests from eligible households whose coupons expired without being redeemed. Meanwhile, money allocated to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has allowed NTIA to clear the digital converter box coupon waiting list. (Print version PDF 173 Kb)
March 24, 2009

Federal Register Notice: Amendments to the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program to Implement the DTV Delay Act (Acrobat 54 Kb)
March 12, 2009

DTV Delay Act: An Act to postpone the DTV transition date, Public Law 111–4,
111th Congress. (Acrobat PDF 156 Kb) (Also available at the Government Printing Office.)
February 11, 2009

Federal Register Notice: NTIA has amended the system of records regarding the DTV Converter Box Coupon Program to allow for the collection of additional personally identifiable information, namely the name of nursing home facilities. (Acrobat PDF, 58 Kb)
Posted January 14, 2009

Federal Register Notice of Proposed Rule Making: Changes to TV Converter Box Coupon Program Regarding Households: NTIA proposes certain changes affecting its Digital-To-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program rules such as waiving the "eligible household" application requirements for individuals residing in nursing homes or other senior care facilities. Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. EST, no later than June 9, 2008. (Acrobat PDF 73Kb)
April 24, 2008
• Public Comments Submitted

Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program Public Meeting: NTIA held a public meeting on Monday, March 19, in connection with its Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program described in the Final Rule that was recently adopted. A webcast archive of the event is being prepared.
March 16, 2007

NTIA Releases Final Rule on Digital Television Converter Box Coupon Program: The converter box coupon program will assist Americans in receiving over-the-air broadcast television programming when full-power television stations cease analog broadcasting after February 17, 2009.
• Press Release [ -- HTML -- MS Word -- Acrobat PDF -- ] -- en español
• Archived video of the 03-12-2007 NTIA Press Conference (116Mb Windows Media Video File Format)
• Final Rule on Digital Television Converter Box Coupon Program
[ -- HTML -- WordPerfect -- Acrobat PDF (167Kb) -- ]
March 12, 2007

Notice: NTIA to Hold Public Meeting on DTV Coupon Program: On Monday, March 19 at 10 a.m., NTIA will hold a Public Meeting in the Commerce Department auditorium to take questions from the public on the Final Rule.
[ -- HTML -- Acrobat PDF (12Kb) -- ]
March 19, 2007

Ex Parte Contacts in Rulemaking
[ -- HTML -- Acrobat PDF (15Kb) -- ]
September 29, 2006