DTV Coupon Backlog Seen Gone Within Weeks

Consumers should be able to receive new coupons within weeks to help defray the cost of converter boxes for the nationwide switch to digital television signals, the federal government said on Tuesday.
The mandatory switch to digital TV has been officially postponed by several months to June 12, after the government ran out of budget authority for the $40 coupons earlier this year.

With President Barack Obama's signature on the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill, the government can clear its coupon waiting list of some 4 million households within 2 to 3 weeks, the National Telecommunications Information Administration said on Tuesday.

The stimulus bill contains tens of millions of dollars needed to restart the coupon program -- designed to help consumers pay for electronic boxes that make digital signals usable on analog TVs -- for an estimated 10 to 20 million households which have older televisions that won't work after the switchover.

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