That's according to an article by Reuters.
On February 17, 2009, all full-powered local stations must switch their analog signals to digital which means viewers will need a Digital TV, a digital converter box or a pay TV subscription to watch television.
The feds are offering two $40 coupons for consumers to buy the converter boxes, which cost around $60. The boxes will enable an analog TV to display the new digital signals. Consumers must use the coupons within 90 days after receiving them.
But Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, associate director of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is overseeing the digital transition, told a congressional committee yesterday that the coupon program has hit a snag.
"(We) would have to get more money, basically to buy more stamps to send out coupons," she told the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
However, Reuters reports that the NTIA issued a statement after the hearing saying it "has no plans to ask Congress for any additional funds."
While the NTIA's stamps shortage may seem troubling, the issue is just the latest bump in the road for next year's scheduled transition to digital signals.
McGuire-Rivera told the subcommittee that only 42 percent of the converter coupons are being redeemed by consumers before they expire; each coupon has a 90-day expiration and consumers now can not apply for a new one if the first one expires.
Some lawmakers have urged the NTIA to waive the 90-day requirement, which was imposed to prevent fraud. But McGuire-Rivera said the agency likely lacks the funds for stamps to issue new coupons if it decided to allow consumers to reapply.
"The program currently has limited administrative funds to distribute additional numbers of coupons that might be issued from (funds recovered from returned coupons)," she said, according to Reuters.
The NTIA began mailing coupons on February 21 and it has received requests for more than 16 million.
"This sounds like it could be a big problem here," Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said at the hearing, Reuters reports.
Other committee members complained that their local CE stores are out of converter boxes, which makes it difficult for consumers to redeem the coupons in the 90-day period.
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