Washington - The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday named former Sprint Nextel executive Anna Gomez as the deputy assistant secretary for communications and information, as well as deputy administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). One of Gomez's top duties will be to help facilitate the nation's transition from analog to digital television. Most recently, Gomez served as the vice president of state and federal regulatory affairs at Sprint Nextel. She also worked for several years at the Federal Communications Commission in various management positions.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama is urging key lawmakers to postpone the Feb. 17 transition to digital television broadcasting, as the federal program providing coupons to consumers for the purchase of necessary digital converter boxes has run out of funds, the Associated Press reported. "With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama transition team, wrote in a letter to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate and House Commerce committees.

Washington - The subsidy program offering coupons to Americans to help pay for converter boxes that ensure their televisions will continue to work after the digital TV transition next month is about to run out of funds, the Associated Press reported.

Washington - U.S. consumers who still have analog TV sets that receive over-the-air signals are being urged by the government to apply for coupons that can be used toward the purchase of digital TV converter boxes by year's end, to "minimize the chances of losing TV reception" when analog signals are switched off in February.

Washington - The Senate Commerce Committee has announced plans to hold an oversight hearing on the status of the digital TV transition on Sept. 23, Broadcasting & Cable reported. The hearing will assess the FCC and National Telecommunication Information Administration efforts to promote broadcaster and consumer preparedness, as well as the recent test pilot of a digital switchover in Wilmington, N.C. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold its own oversight hearing on the digital TV transition tomorrow.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") now has made available the coupons for consumers to use to buy converter boxes that will allow analog television sets to pick up the digital signals of television stations. We have written about the NTIA program before, here. Digital signals are now available in most markets, and these signals will be the only signals available from full power television stations after the February 17, 2009 digital conversion deadline. The coupons, valued at $40, will be available until they run out (and, by most estimates, Congress has not appropriated enough money for every household to get coupons).

Washington - Beginning Jan. 1, the 13-21 million households that use an antenna to receive analog TV signals can ask the government for two $40 coupons they can use toward the purchase of converters that will be needed for them to view digital TV signals once analog broadcasts are discontinued in 2009, the Associated Press reported.

Washington - LG Electronics expects retailers to charge about $60 for the converter boxes that will be needed by viewers to receive digital TV signals on analog TV sets, once the switch to digital broadcasting happens in February 2009, Reuters reported.

*The original version of this story has been corrected.
Washington - The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced on Monday the finalized specifics of its coupon program that will subsidize U.S. consumers' purchases of converter boxes, so they remain able to receive signals on their analog TVs once analog broadcasts are ceased on Feb. 1, 2009.