Ben Berkowitz is the business news editor at AOL. His weekly column highlights business stories with significant implications that were overlooked at first glance.

The story you didn't read this week but should have is the news that the Commerce Department is going to make $40 coupons available to people with TVs that can't tune digital signals and aren't hooked up to satellite or cable.

This is important because, in less than two years, analog TV as we know it will end in the United States. From February 17, 2009, stations must broadcast in digital only. The reason of course is money; it takes a lot less spectrum to broadcast digital signals than analog, and all those analog airwaves are worth untold billions of dollars.

So it's in Uncle Sam's best interest to ensure that the switchover happens, and the best way to do that is to do the heavy lifting (financially) for those who still love their rabbit ears.

Here's the funny part though (funny as in "oh geez not again," not "hah hah" funny): to get one of these $40 coupons from Uncle Carlos (AKA Commerce Secretary Gutierrez), all you have to do is ask.

Even if you don't need one, you can still go to a special National Telecommunications and Information Administration Web site starting Jan. 1, 2008 and request up to two $40 coupons per household. (Each converter will be about $50). The best part is this: if the initial $990 million in coupons runs out, the NTIA can ask Congress for $510 million more.