Commerce Department

WASHINGTON—Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez announced over 10 million coupons
have been requested since the launch of the TV Converter Box Program on January 1, 2008. The
February 17, 2009 transition will offer consumers a clearer picture, more programming choices and
free up the airwaves for better communications among emergency first responders. The Commerce
Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is administering
the TV Converter Box Coupon Program.

WASHINGTON—Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA), which runs the TV Converter Box Coupon Program, will begin mailing $40 coupons to
consumers next week--one year from the date of the digital television transition—to be used to
purchase eligible TV converter boxes. Converter boxes are needed to keep analog televisions
that rely on an antenna working when full-power television stations convert to all-digital signals
on February 17, 2009.

WASHINGTON -- With the United States set to switch from analog to digital television in February 2009, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez today issued the following statement on the launch of the TV Converter Box Coupon Program, designed to help facilitate the changeover.*