NTIA ‘certainly’ expects enough DTV converter boxes to go around ...

billion-dollar marketplace for manufacturers to address,” he said: “That’s a very attractive marketplace for them to serve.” Kneuer wouldn’t say where NTIA will stands on means- testing for coupon eligibility. The agency’s proceeding reveals a consensus that there’s “a very broad cross-section of Americans who are going to be impacted by this and that to the extent possible, they should be eligible,” he said. NTIA will put “systems in place” to fight waste, fraud and abuse in the program, including thwarting resale of coupons, Kneuer said: “I'm not sure what the marketplace for a coupon would be. If there’s broad eligibility for the coupon, why would one go and buy it on eBay when you can request it from the government in the first instance?” Asked whether he had called the $5 million set by law for consumer outreach “a drop in the bucket,” Kneuer didn’t acknowledge using those words. But if he did, he said, it was probably in the “context” that $5 million pales in comparison with what the CE and broadcast industries and others will spend to educate the public on the analog cutoff. He wouldn’t have used “drop in the bucket” to say the consumer outreach element isn’t well enough financed, he said. “I'm focusing that money on making people aware of the program itself, and we're working closely with the broadcasters and the consumer electronics industry and others, so as they're doing their broader public education campaigns, that they are reflecting and referencing our program,” Kneuer said. “I intend to use those broader, bigger efforts to really leverage our $5 million resource.”