CEA ‘would like to see the deployment rate higher for CableCARDs’...

technology and new capability that consumers will need time to grasp,” Shapiro said. Cable operators “have stuck to their promise to support” CableCARD, but they're not actively promoting it, Shapiro said. He recalled the statement of a Cox executive at an HDTV conference last summer who, when asked if the MSO was promoting CableCARD, said its policy was “don’t ask, don’t sell.” Shapiro said “the dearth of information from cable operators certainly doesn’t help the attachment rate” on CableCARDs. Nevertheless, CableCARD-ready DTVs “will remain important for the high percentage of cable customers who don’t want a set-top box,” Shapiro said. “Luckily, there’s a large and growing installed base of digital cable-ready TVs that will prove very useful to consumers as awareness of this latent capability increases.”