by Laura Conaway

Twitter listener @joshzele writes:

$650m for Digital-to-Analog converter boxes? That's in the stimulus plan? When did TV become a critical public service?

 

Sure enough, the money he's talking about is right in the discussion draft of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupons

Recovery funding: $650 million

Funding provides for additional implementation and administration of the digital-to-analog
converter box coupon program, including additional coupons to meet new projected demands
and consumer support, outreach and administration.

Acting on a Congressional mandate, the nation's broadcasters have been set to make the switch on Feb. 17 from old-fashioned analog to digital. Any non-cable customers with analog sets and no converter box would find themselves with nothing but fuzz. The government set up a program to offer households $40 coupons to buy a converter, but the program says it's out of cash. This month, the incoming Obama administration has asked Congress to delay the move to digital. And behold, money to help more people complete the transition is in the stimulus plan.

(At my house, we go months without turning on the television. Right now, we don't even have one. Still, I can see that TV matters a great deal to a great many people. Just not to me and @joshzele, you know?)