NTIA Administrator John Kneuer said Wednesday that consumer outre...

community outreach group Family, Career and Community Leaders of America to promote the NTIA coupon program nationally. Kneuer said Best Buy’s announcement was timed to trumpet the start Saturday of the 500-day countdown to the Feb. 18, 2009, analog cutoff. But Best Buy again stopped short of committing to carry coupon-eligible DTV converter boxes chainwide. Under sharp questioning during a House hearing in March, Best Buy similarly avoided making a chainwide converter box commitment. Best Buy “intends to participate in the program and will announce specifics around our plans when we have fully evaluated the program and the coupon redemption requirements,” a spokeswoman told us. “Our goal would be to carry converter boxes when our retail channels are fully equipped to accept coupons from our customers,” she said. “In the interim, we recognize the important role of consumer education. Our investment in the students of FCCLA is one important way to help get the word out about the coupons.” Speaking with reporters, Kneuer seemed to reject calls by Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wis., to reverse eligibility for the two rounds of funding that would make the larger, first set of rebates available only to over-the-air TV consumers. Comments in NTIA’s rulemaking made it “clear” that the hard cutoff would have “a huge impact” across a broad swath of consumers, Kneuer said. Still, reserving a $500 million pool for exclusively over-the-air viewers will “maximize the likelihood” that no household will go dark, he said.