[Federal Register: March 4, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 41)]
[Notices]               
[Page 9384]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04mr09-20]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

 
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the emergency provisions of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).
    Agency: National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
    Title: Message Testing Focus Groups and Interviews for the Digital-
to-Analog Converter Box Program.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Emergency submission.
    Number of Respondents: 328.
    Average Hours per Response: 90 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 492.
    Needs and Uses: Congress directed the National Telecommunications 
and Information Administration (NTIA) to create and implement a program 
to provide coupons for consumers to purchase digital-to-analog 
converter boxes. These converter boxes are necessary for consumers who 
wish to continue receiving broadcast programming over the air using 
analog-only television sets after February 17, 2009--the date that 
television stations are required by law to cease analog broadcasting. 
Since September 2007, NTIA has been conducting a consumer education 
campaign to educate U.S. residents who receive over-the-air broadcasts 
on analog television sets about the digital television transition and 
the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. While awareness of the coupon 
program has been nationally reported, more than five million households 
were completely unprepared as of February 2009. On February 11, 2009, 
the President signed the DTV Delay Act into law changing the date by 
which all full-power television stations must cease analog broadcasts 
to June 12, 2009.
    In an effort to help further determine who the unprepared 
households are, if the households have taken any steps to prepare for 
the transition, if not why, and the optimal messages and methods to 
communicate with the consumers who are not ready in the final months 
leading up to the transition, NTIA, will conduct 32 focus groups in ten 
cities and a limited number of individual interviews. This effort would 
lead in the development of new messages and materials to reach these 
consumers. The targeted audiences, identified as the more reliant on 
over-the-air television, include the following: (1) Economically 
disadvantaged households; (2) rural residents; (3) minorities; (4) 
people with disabilities; and (5) seniors.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: One-time only.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    OMB Desk Officer: Nicholas Fraser, (202) 395-5887.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 7845, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
dHynek@doc.gov).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent by March 6, 2009 to Nicholas Fraser, OMB Desk 
Officer, FAX number (202) 395-5806, or Nicholas_A._
Fraser@omb.eop.gov.

    Dated: February 26, 2009.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E9-4513 Filed 3-3-09; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-60-P