A coupon-eligible converter box (CECB) was a digital television adapter that met eligibility specifications for subsidy "coupons" from the United States government. The subsidy program was enacted to provide terrestrial television viewers with an affordable way to continue receiving free digital terrestrial television services after the nation's television service transitioned to digital transmission and analog transmissions ceased. The specification was developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with input from the broadcast and consumer electronics industries as well as public interest groups.
History Early proposals In March 2005, United States House Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton of Texas said he would introduce a bill requiring the transition to digital television "sometime in the spring", saying he wanted analog broadcasting to end on December 31, 2006. Included in his plan was a $400–$500 million subsidy for converter boxes, which were expected to cost $50 each. The subsidies were intended only for people who could not afford a pay service such as cable or satellite television. Each home would receive a rebate coupon for one box, which could be mailed to the United States Treasury for redemption. Barton estimated that 8 to 10 million converters would be needed.
Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 The United States Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, required that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) direct all full-power television stations to cease analog TV broadcasting before midnight on February 17, 2009. (This deadline later changed to June 12.) Recognizing that consumers might wish to continue receiving broadcast programming over-the-air using analog-only televisions, the Act authorized the NTIA to create a digital-to-analog converter box assistance program. Consumer education plans for the subsidy program were targeted to low-income, elderly, disabled, inner city, immigrant, and rural Americans, because these groups were more likely to use an antenna instead of cable or satellite television. The Act also established a new Treasury fund, known as the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Fund. It directed the FCC to deposit the receipts from the spectrum auction of the returned analog television frequencies into the fund.
The 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 stand-alone 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 "eligible household".
As 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.
Implementing the program 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 had a budget of $5 million, so the companies participating in the transition would have to help.
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.
With $1.5 billion in 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. At first, anyone would be able to apply, even for those who had one or more TVs connected to cable or satellite.
The NTIA set the standards for the converter box based on what manufacturers and broadcasters wanted. LG Electronics, Thomson, 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.
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 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. If the funds 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.
The NTIA planned to start processing coupon requests a year before the original transition date 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.
By the 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." Institutions, such as retirement homes, were initially excluded from the program; while this was partially remedied (to allow one coupon per retirement-home resident), prisons, homeless shelters 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 after unredeemed coupons expire could new requests be fulfilled. By January 7, NTIA's waiting list included just under a million requested coupons. A week later, the list had grown to two million coupons.http://www.dtv2009.gov/Stats.aspx On January 7, both Consumers Union 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. 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. The delay passed early in February (see below).
Specifications The NTIA Specification is arranged in three categories, describing required, permitted, and disqualifying features.
Absolute requirements
The following features were required, but could be provided by the box in various ways.
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 needed to output radio frequency signals (compatible with a television's antenna input), composite video, and stereo audio. It had to 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 boxes were required to decode Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages, Closed Captioning data, and Parental Control (V-Chip) descriptors and to decode the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data from the digital transmission, using it to provide the user with tuned channel and program information.
CECBs could not consume more than an average of 2 watts of power when not in use (when there was no video or audio display). They had to provide an automatic power-down option that could put the unit in standby mode when it hadn't received any commands for a period of time.
Optional features Manufacturers could self-certify compliance with these requirements, but had to 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 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.
While an outdoor antenna is required for adequate digital reception in most locations beyond from TV transmitters, and smart antenna interfaces were an optionally permitted feature of coupon-eligible converter boxes, there were no subsidies for antennas. Although manufacturers could sell a converter/smart-antenna bundle, they were required to also offer the converter by itself to consumers.
DTV converter boxes could earn a United States Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star label if they consume no more than eight watts of electricity while operating, no more than one watt while in standby mode, and if they automatically power-down after four hours of inactivity.
Disqualifying features Some features disqualified a converter box from coupon eligibility, such as high-definition video output and built-in DVR functionality. Digital cable and satellite set-top boxes that incorporate a digital tuner were also disqualified.
Certain output features were prohibited from coupon-eligible devices: component video, VGA, RGB, DVI, HDMI, USB video, IEEE-1394/iLink/FireWire video, Ethernet video, and IEEE-802.11/WiFi video outputs.
Limitations Coupon-eligible converter boxes only tune to one channel at a time, as they only contain one digital tuner and no analog tuner. In order to watch one channel while recording another, one must have two such converter boxes, unless the recording device has its own digital TV tuner.