If you own an old television set and haven’t made your request for one of those $40 coupons to help you buy a digital converter box, you may be seeing a lot of snow on your Sony after Feb. 17, even if you request a coupon today.

The problem could apply to as many as 10,000 households in the Providence-New Bedford television market.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced that its coupons program has run into a cash flow problem.

People who requested vouchers for the boxes this week are now on a waiting list which, as of Monday, was roughly 103,000 names long.