A coupon-eligible converter box (CECB) was a digital television adapter that met eligibility specifications for subsidy "coupons" from the United States government.

The specification was developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with input from the broadcast and consumer electronics industries as well as public interest groups.

In March 2005, United States House Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton of Texas said he would introduce a bill requiring the transition to digital television "sometime in the spring", saying he wanted analog broadcasting to end on December 31, 2006.

Consumer education plans for the subsidy program were targeted to low-income, elderly, disabled, inner city, immigrant, and rural Americans, because these groups were more likely to use an antenna instead of cable or satellite television.

The Act directed the NTIA to implement and administer a program through which eligible US households could obtain a maximum of two "coupons" (actually payment vouchers) of $40 each, to be applied towards the purchase of a digital-to-analog converter box.

[5] On March 12, 2007, the NTIA held a news conference to announce the standards for the converter boxes and the requirements for receiving coupons.

An initial funding of $990 million was expected to allow all US households an opportunity to apply for the coupons, which expired 90 days after they were mailed.

On January 4, 2009, the NTIA began placing coupon requests on a waiting list after the program reached its maximum allowed funding.

[15] On January 7, both Consumers Union and Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts (who headed the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s telecom subcommittee) advocated that the February 17, 2009 analog shutoff date be postponed, due to the lack of coupons and NTIA's inability to handle the expected public enquiries.

[16] On January 8, President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team contacted key legislators to express support for a delay, largely because of problems funding coupons for converters.

The box needed to output radio frequency signals (compatible with a television's antenna input), composite video, and stereo audio.

The boxes were required to decode Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages, Closed Captioning data, and Parental Control (V-Chip) descriptors and to decode the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data from the digital transmission, using it to provide the user with tuned channel and program information.

They had to provide an automatic power-down option that could put the unit in standby mode when it hadn't received any commands for a period of time.

[22] Some features disqualified a converter box from coupon eligibility, such as high-definition video output and built-in DVR functionality.

However, older devices with IR blasters may not be fully compatible with digital subchannels; the converter box may require the use of a [-] or [.]

[24] Small battery-operated portable televisions, while valuable in time of disaster, are generally poorly suited to digital conversion.

[27] This is problematic, as digital signals are most often transmitted on higher frequencies or with far less power than their analog counterparts,[28] requiring careful antenna installation, orientation and location to avoid obstructions, fading and multipath interference problems.

[10] In late March 2008, the CBA filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking an injunction to halt the sale and distribution of CECBs.

[34] Responding to the CBA, the FCC and NTIA urged manufacturers to include analog support voluntarily in all converter boxes.

Amy Brown, former CBA executive director, said "some 40 percent of Class A and LPTV station operators believe they will have to shut down in the next year if they are not helped through the digital transition.

"[36] In June 2010, the FCC stopped accepting new applications for digital LPTV stations while it considered the spectrum needs of the National Broadband Plan.

[37] In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in September 2010, the FCC suggested setting a shutoff date for all analog TV transmissions, including LPTV stations, in 2012.

[38] In April 2011, the NTIA announced that it would stop accepting applications for grants toward upgrading LPTV stations to digital transmission as of July 2, 2012.

By early January 2009, the NTIA had issued $1.34 billion worth of coupons for converter boxes, reaching the obligation limit set by the U.S. Congress in the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005.

[42] In December 2008, FCC commissioner McDowell urged "those who don't need the government subsidy not to wait on that process before purchasing a converter box for themselves or as a gift for someone else.

During the weeks it takes for the government to process coupon requests, you will lose precious time to hook up the box, check antenna connections, and start enjoying free digital broadcast TV right away.

[46] Manufacturers who had halted production ahead of the original February 17, 2009 deadline were to resume converter box assembly but this new stock was not expected in stores until April.

[49][50] The DTV Delay Act did not address the shortfall in funding for converter-box coupons; the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, part of a larger appropriations bill signed into law on February 17, 2009, added $650 million in funding—$490 million of that for coupons, increasing the total coupon-fund expenditure to $1.83 billion.

The half-hour public service announcement with English and Spanish segments seen on most such stations was produced by the National Association of Broadcasters.

[53] U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation which would have extended the converter-box coupon program beyond July 31, 2009, subsidized antennas, and require satellite and cable TV companies to provide a $10 basic-broadcast-channel package available to those who had lost the ability to receive at least one over-the-air channel because of the transition.