One of the congressional committees overseeing the government coupon program is getting a lilttle fed up with the agency running the effort. The Subcommittee on Government Management held a hearing today in Brooklyn that included a good bit of criticism of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Some members are worried about how the coupon program is being run. High among their concerns is the fact that the coupons expire 90 days after issue and cannot be reissued once they run out. You’d think the up side of this is that the coupons can then be issued to other viewers who need them, but not necessarily, as the administration could be short on money to print and mail them. You can see why some members of Congress are getting a little put out.
And here’s the statistic that floors me: 56% of the coupons issued so far have expired without being used. Are people forgetting about them? Deciding they didn’t need them after all? Or did they just apply because they liked the idea of getting something for free? I’m not quite sure what to make of this.
Another interesting tidbit from the report: broadcasters have aired more than one million announcements about the transition. These are the notices that air in commercial breaks, newscasts, news tickers and those graphics that pop up during primetime shows. It seems like they’re practically running back-to-back sometimes. I bet we hit three million before February 17th arrives.
[...] even issued coupons to help subsidize the cost of upgrading. According to some sources, such as the Going Digital Blog, a large number of Americans allow the coupons to expire before they are used. Americans [...]
>i>56% of the coupons issued so far have expired without being used. Are people forgetting about them? Deciding they didn’t need them after all?
Or maybe it is because you have to run all over town looking for a place that isn’t sold out of them. This whole thing is a pita and there is NO reason they had to put expiration dates on those coupons. There is really no reason to ‘force’ people into dtv either. It’s not like the programming is improving. Woopee, we can watch the same ol’ schlock in better quality now.