Nagravision, which supplies conditional-access systems and DRM te...

FCC in an ex-parte filing Tuesday. Nagravision thinks “such a downloadable system is achievable in a reasonably short time frame and has committed to participate in an endeavor to define it,” it said. The FCC in January extended Cablevision’s CableCARD waiver to December 2010, to give the company more time to develop the downloadable security system and deploy it in its service area. Nagravision wants the FCC to require that Cablevision and NDS “participate in a technical standards-setting process with other affected parties to develop a single, nationally portable, ‘downloadable’ system as a successor” to CableCARD, it said. “Moreover, the commission should continue to require cable operators to rely on a single, common, nationally available conditional access technology when a new system succeeds the existing CableCARD system.” Cablevision has said its downloadable security proposal is based “on an open standard that will work with third-party devices as well as unaffiliated security technology.” Cablevision has promised to keep supporting CableCARD devices after it deploys downloadable security, “ensuring a nationally available and portable security solution for Cablevision customers in addition to the open, downloadable security that Cablevision is implementing.” Throwing out Cablevision’s CableCARD waiver, as the CEA wants the commission to do, would “impede” the development of downloadable security, Cablevision has said.