Tight Oversight of NTIA Coupon Program Seen Likely if Democrats Take Congress
A Democratic-controlled House or Senate is likely to take an active oversight role on NTIA’s handling of the $1.5 billion DTV converter box coupon program, Hill sources told us. And consumer groups vow that if they're emboldened by a big Democratic victory they would push for more subsidy money.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
In their oversight, Democrats will seek to probe not only whether $1.5 billion is enough money for the program, but also whether it’s being targeted to the disenfranchised who need help the most, Hill sources said. The first step would be oversight hearings to take a close look at how NTIA is handling the program, sources said. From that point, decisions would be made whether more money is needed and whether the program needs reshaping to meet the needs of those who require the most help, Hill sources said.
Gene Kimmelman, Consumers Union (CU) vp-federal & international affairs, expects if the Democrats take over the House they will give “substantial scrutiny” to whether funding for the DTV converter box coupon program “is big enough,” he said in an interview. In its comments in the NTIA coupon rulemaking, CU said the $1.5 billion allocated for the program was at least $2 billion short of what’s needed. Kimmelman said that estimate was based on CU’s surveys gauging how many consumers still have analog TV sets that aren’t hooked up to cable and satellite. “The problem is even worse if there’s not a clear solution to the cable retransmission of digital and analog signals,” he said: “If there’s a problem in working out how cable accepts digital transmission signals, there’s a problem there and the costs are even more enormous. There’s a huge gap here.”
Kimmelman conceded “there are some unknowns,” including how many consumers will ditch their analog TVs and buy a DTV. “We know there’s some churn in the market,” he said. Another is how many consumers are actually using their analog TVs for over-the-air reception, he said. CEA contends many sets are being used for playing videogames and other uses besides over-the-air reception. “But our statistics show that that’s not really quite true,” Kimmelman said: “So there are question marks here how many people are going to yell and scream when their sets go black. So I think there'll be enormous pressure on Congress to revisit the issue. But first and foremost, before you even get there, the NTIA has an enormous responsibility to make this a very consumer- friendly program -- easy to come in and get the converter box you need to keep your TV working. If that fails, that’s going to be the biggest problem facing the Administration.”
Kimmelman thinks that in a Democratic-controlled Congress, “there'll be greater sympathy for the consumer” on DTV subsidies, and “I expect it'll be quite bipartisan,” he said. “While there were some Republicans raising concerns” about lack of subsidies within the program in hearings last year, theirs “was not an overwhelming chorus.” He sees “greater scrutiny for the program and greater concern about holding consumers harmless during the transition.”
NAB has hinted at plans to go back to Congress to seek more money (CD Oct 17 p3), and a senior executive repeated those hints last week. “NAB’s goal is to protect consumers from being disenfranchised from access to local television signals as we move towards the 2009 date,” Exec. Vp Dennis Wharton told us: “We agree that there may need to be upward adjustments to the subsidy program to ensure that this goal is met.” Kimmelman said he hasn’t talked to NAB, “but I'm sure we would be very willing to collaborate on any efforts to make this transition more affordable for consumers.”
Reviewing the funding “certainly could” have implications for delaying the 2009 cutoff, Kimmelman said. “There’s an enormous concern that when you get to looking at the overall budget -- in anticipation of continuing deficits going forward, pressure on Congress to cut spending, not increase spending -- the whole discussion around converter boxes becomes an enormous opportunity to delay the entire digital transition. If there’s a dispute over whether consumers are going to be extremely unhappy with what Congress is doing and how they're doing it and Congress can’t seem to find the money to protect consumers, I'm sure many will raise the question whether they should just delay the transition altogether.”
CEA is unfazed, said Julie Kearney, senior dir. & regulatory counsel. The analog cutoff date “has been set and the funds have been allocated,” Kearney said. “CEA looks forward to working collaboratively with all parties, including CU, to ensure a smooth transition.”