Seven in 10 consumers polled by CEA plan to buy a CableCARD-ready...
Seven in 10 consumers polled by CEA plan to buy a CableCARD-ready HDTV set as their next TV, CEA said Mon. at the NCTA show in San Francisco, where it sought to promote cable industry CableCARD support. “It’s the…
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beginning of the end for the DTV transition, and with 70% of U.S. households relying on cable for their primary TV signal, support from the cable industry for these plug-&- play sets is paramount,” said CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro. He said cable must join CE in promoting the sets and “the necessary CableCARD. Beyond that, the CableCARD must be made readily available to consumers by cable operators at an affordable cost.” CEA said 3 million CableCARD-ready HDTV sets will be shipped this year, building on the installed base of one million shipped through year-end 2004. By cable’s latest estimates, only 31,000 CableCARDs had been installed in consumers’ homes (CED March 21 p2). But the numbers should keep rising as more CableCARD-ready sets reach the market. Under stringent new reporting rules incorporated into the FCC’s extension of the integration ban by a year, the 6 largest cable operators must file status reports on CableCARD “deployment and support” as of Aug. 1, and every 90 days thereafter.