FCC Reaffirms Set-Top Integration Ban, but Defers it For One Year
The FCC will maintain its ban on cable deployment of integrated set-top boxes, it announced late Thurs., but it deferred the effective date one year to July 2007. The Commission said the delay was designed to give cable operators time to develop a downloadable security solution. The Commission also ordered the cable industry to report by Dec. 1, 2005 on progress being made toward the solution, and for NCTA and CEA to make regular reports on negotiations on a “plug and play” agreement.
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The decision follows months of intensive lobbying by cable to have the ban delayed or eliminated and by the CE industry to keep the July 2006 effective date intact. The debate took a dramatic turn in recent weeks when Microsoft -- an avid opponent of a delay -- switched sides and joined with cable to urge a 6-18 month deferral.
Whatever the merits of the ban when it was adopted, Comcast told the Commission in the last few days, “subsequently changed circumstances” -- including “much improved” cable-CE relations -- make continuing the ban “indefensible today.” It called the case for extending, if not eliminating, the ban “compelling” and “arguments against it… unavailing.”
Comcast also had called on the FCC to reject conditions CE had asked be placed on cable upon any extension of the July 2006 deadline. In particular, it urged Sharp’s suggestion of stringent reporting requirements on the installation of CableCARDs be rejected as “extremely burdensome” and not capable of generating the information the Commission needs. “Nothing more is needed, or appropriate, with respect to reporting requirements” than contained in the cable-Microsoft proposal on downloadable security, Comcast said.
Undeterred, CEA pressed its case for “specific regulatory and reporting requirements” it said would be necessary if the “incentive” of the July 2006 integration ban was lifted or delayed. Single-stream CableCARDs have been installed in no more than 2.7% “of the devices capable of receiving them,” CEA said, for the first time citing the disparity between the 27,000 CableCARDs reported by cable to have been installed and the million CableCARD-ready DTV products reported to have been shipped. Under rules proposed by CEA, cable MSOs also would be made to assure multistream CableCARDs will be available in sufficient quantities, and dates certain established for testing procedures and tools for multistream CableCARD implementation. CEA said it believes Sept. 30 would be a reasonable date for test procedures and implements and Dec. 31 for the multistream CableCARDs themselves.