Smithfield, N.C. — ChannelMaster by PCT, a U.S. manufacturer of consumer off-air reception products, said its CM-7000 digital-to-analog converter box has received approval from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to qualify for the digital-to-analog converter-box coupon program, the company said Tuesday.
Released earlier this year, the CM-7000 converter is now a qualified converter box in the Coupon-Eligible Converter Box program supporting the U.S. digital broadcast conversion.
Industry estimates indicate more than 60 million converter boxes will be necessary to comply with the FCC’s mandated analog-to-digital conversion. To date, 7.7 million coupon applications have been submitted to the NTIA for the February 2009 cutoff date.
CM-7000 features an onscreen program guide, closed captioning, parental control, full-function remote control and a standby mode for energy savings.
Digital programming is currently being broadcast more than 1628 stations in 211 markets across the country and new channels are continuously being added.