FCC Boss: No Studies Needed, The Cable Box Needs Competition When the FCC recently voted to open up the cable set top box market to competition, cable lobbyists and loyal politicians quickly set to work trying to dismantle the plan. In addition to threatening lawsuits and pushing aggressively misleading editorials in papers nationwide, the cable industry had its loyal politicians fire off numerous letters to the FCC urging the agency to reconsider its plan. Most of the letters, not coincidentally, exactly mirror the opposition language used by cable lobbyists.

One such letter, signed by 55 politicians, urged the FCC to study the issue further -- a veiled ploy to stall the plan until after the next election -- at which point the current, more consumer-friendly FCC could find itself dismantled. “In order to evaluate the current marketplace and to assess the potential impact of the proposed rules, we believe it is essential for independent, peer-reviewed studies to be completed of current developments towards market-based solutions and of the potential costs and benefits of the proposed rules, including the impact of the proposed rules on diversity of programming, independent and minority television programming, content protection and consumer privacy,” the letter said at the time. Cable lobbyists have been trying to argue that increased set top competition will hurt diversity, privacy, and puppies -- though the real sore point for the cable industry is two fold. One, increased set top box competition would damage the $21 billion the cable sector earns annually from captive customers. But it would also open the door to third-party cable boxes that are more likely to direct users to alternative streaming options. But this week FCC boss Tom Wheeler responded to the politicians, stating the agency has all the information it needs to proceed with the FCC's plan to "unlock the box." "The notice-and-comment process, as well as subsequent ex parte communications, will constitute the most complete and thorough examination of this issue ever undertaken or contemplated," Wheeler said. "In order to provide guidance to commenters, we specifically requested information from all sides on the issues you raise in your letter -- the impact on all parties in the video marketplace, the impact on content diversity and intellectual property, and the impact on consumer privacy as well as many other topics," he said. In other words, the FCC is undeterred from its quest to bring competition to the cable set top box market, no matter how many politicians bark for their AT&T, Comcast, and telecom campaign contributions. The FCC's goal is putting an end to the $231 in fees most users pay to rent such boxes annually, and striking a major blow to a cornerstone of the cable industry's walled garden. In other words, the FCC is undeterred from its quest to bring competition to the cable set top box market, no matter how many politicians bark for their AT&T, Comcast, and telecom campaign contributions. The FCC's goal is putting an end to the $231 in fees most users pay to rent such boxes annually, and striking a major blow to a cornerstone of the cable industry's walled garden.







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Most recommended from 57 comments



jarablue

Always be true to yourself

join:2001-06-11

Worcester, MA 21 recommendations jarablue Member Get ready For the onslaught of stories from the MSOs as why cable boxes save war veterans to how they are battling ISIS on the front lines. Here's to competition. Woohoo is all I can say. Oh I can hear the bitching/whining from them now.



Do they have set top boxes in C block?

Anon4088c

@t-mobile.com 5 recommendations Anon4088c Anon about time i have verizon fios at my house and i pay $150.00 per month in equipment only i do have 6 TV connected but still its crazy ohreally

join:2014-11-21 4 recommendations ohreally Member Europe leads the way In Europe, all TV operators use the same common standard - DVB - with whatever flavour they need (satellite, cable, terrestrial). Lots of similarity between all three standards.



This means that many TVs usually come with tuners for DVB-T, and higher end ones usually come with DVB-C and DVB-S tuners too.



EU regulations mean that all TVs have to come with a "CI slot" and accept a "CAM", which is the DVB version of the cablecard slot and cablecard.



I have a £100 supermarket special TV that has a CI slot. There are no encrypted services on terrestrial TV where I live, but if there was I could get the pay TV company to send me a CAM and smartcard to decode it. The same is true for satellite (the main channels from BBC/ITV/CH4 etc are free to air). My more expensive Panasonic has the CI slot and DVB T/S/C tuners



The CI slot gets more use in other European countries, where the cable operators routinely issue CAMs and cards to customers. You can quite literally buy a TV, insert the CAM, do a channel search and start watching. It doesn't need pairing to the TV, or approval from the cable co - if it complies with the standard it will work. Modern TVs usually have multiple tuners, and you can turn them into PVRs just by connecting a USB hard drive.



Of course, you can also buy PVRs and PC tuner cards with CI slots too



This also has positive effects for those of us whose pay TV companies do not allow third party equipment. The pay-TV satellite company here requires you to use their box, but you can buy and sell them freely. I bought one for £20 - an HD PVR - and got it on my account in 30 seconds. The cable company doesn't allow that, but they don't charge for rented hardware (a TiVo in their case) - it's part of the TV subscription. No one charges for modem/router rental either.

cypherstream

MVM

join:2004-12-02

Reading, PA 4 recommendations cypherstream MVM It needs an open standard system If they plan to get other vendors to make cable box competition, then standards for 2 way need to be established. No not Tru2Way, something better.



Sure you can go out and buy a Tivo today, but good luck getting VOD working or SDV (without some kind of adapter). Yeah there may be some deals with Comcast or others to get VOD to the Tivo, but its not a standard implementation.



I don't get why there isn't a standard for SDV and VOD for third parties. If you allow the customers to get into VOD, they could potentially pay for more content. Therefore your revenue goes up. Isn't increasing revenue a good thing? Sure maybe you loose it in set top box rentals, but we all know they are going to just increase the base package prices or introduce new below the line fees to compensate for that. Brim77

join:2012-03-16

Lansing, MI 3 recommendations Brim77 Member Not sure why the cable companies are squirming. If they're as innovative and loved by customers as much as they claim, then surely they have nothing to worry about.