Hauppauge, Robert Johnson Applaud, USTelecom Slams FCC Set-Top NPRM

was on the agency's Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee and is a member of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, along with Public Knowledge and TiVo. The NPRM is seen as being largely derived from the CVCC-supported recommendations in the DSTAC report. Hauppauge also helped create demos of the CVCC-backed concept for both Congress and the FCC. The demos showed consumer devices can deliver both live TV content and over-the-top content “without requiring a change to the TV distribution systems of current cable and satellite providers,” Hauppage said. The FCC's proposed rules will give more minority programmers the opportunity to “have their content seen and their voices heard,” said BET founder and RLJ Entertainment Chairman Robert Johnson in an emailed statement. Johnson praised Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for joining Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel “in supporting the universal set-top box proposal.” The FCC inserting itself into the video market is “unlikely to serve consumers or competition,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick in a statement. “The FCC’s thumb on the scales will inevitably straightjacket innovation and harm competition, neither of which will serve the public interest.”