DTV coupons might be made of paper
June 15th, 2007DTV converter box coupons could be made of paper, not plastic—despite their recent description, on America’s top newspaper web site, as “$40 gift cards.”
The coupons offer a government-sponsored price break on digital TV adapters, which will permit ancient analog televisions to live on unnaturally through artificial means into the era of all-digital TV broadcasts commencing on February 18, 2009.
Federal rules specify that DTV coupons must be electronically trackable. For retailers, a plastic card might be easiest and most familiar. But paper coupons, like subway tickets, can also be made to store encoded data. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will await a recommendation on the paper-or-plastic issue from the contractor that will administer its DTV coupon program, according to Anthony Wilhelm, an NTIA official.
You can find out more about the DTV coupon program right here—including information you won’t find in the Q&A sections of promotional DTV sites produced by government or industry lobbies. Now aren’t you glad you read the “unofficial” DTV site?
Read more:
• DTV Converter Box Coupons
• Why choose an ‘unofficial’ DTV site?