NTIA's New DTV Pitch: 'Apply, Buy, Try'

Acting National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Meredith Attwell Baker Tuesday held a conference call to pitch the NTIA's new "apply, buy, try" campaign. Baker told reporters she "could not emphasize enough" that some viewers may be adversely affected if they don't prepare early for the digital-TV switch. The NTIA, which oversees the DTV-to-analog converter-box program, wants to make sure viewers who need the boxes are applying for them and those who apply are actually buying them rather than letting the coupons expire, as they do within 90 days. More than one-half of the coupons are expiring without being redeemed. Baker also wants viewers to try out the boxes -- an emphasis that stems from the Wilmington, N.C., early analog-shutoff test, which revealed a lot of folks who either: did not know how to set up the boxes; didn't know they needed to scan, or rescan, for DTV channels; or did not know they might not get a signal because of antenna or station-coverage issues.