Paul Gluckman

Panasonic “is a strong believer that OCAP is necessary for interactive digital cable service” through set-tops and DTV sets, Chief Technology Officer Paul Liao told us, reacting to a CE industry proposal filed at the FCC last week for speeding the retail availability of 2-way plug & play devices at retail. The proposal, signed by CEA and 12 CE and IT companies, would make OCAP optional. LG, Panasonic and Samsung -- all OCAP licensees -- were among the companies not signing. To our follow-up query whether Liao’s statement could be read to mean Panasonic supports only those proposals in which OCAP is a requirement, not an option, a spokesman gave us an equally nebulous response: “Panasonic supports only those proposals that include OCAP.” We pressed again and were told Liao’s comment “represents as much as we are able to say on the issue.”

NTIA decided to schedule individual meetings this week on its DTV coupon rulemaking (CD Nov 7 p3) because it received several calls from interested parties “seeking to clarify their comments,” an agency spokesman told us. “We wanted to give the public an opportunity to participate as well so that no one could say, ‘Hey, there’s an unfair advantage here,'” the spokesman said. Though NTIA didn’t provide for reply comments in the rulemaking, it publicly has “reserved the right to request information as needed to provide us the most flexibility so that we put together the best program possible,” he said. Discussion about vendor “procurement issues” is off-limits at this week’s meetings, NTIA has said. This includes NTIA’s request for information (RFI) that closed Sept. 15 in which 15 vendors submitted replies. Discussing the RFI is barred because the meetings this week pertain to the rulemaking, and the RFI is a separate govt. procurement program, the spokesman said. It would be “mixing apples and oranges” to allow discussions of the RFI, he said.

“A good amount of value” would be created in a Sirius merger with XM, but “I really don’t have very much to say about a hypothetical combination that could or could not” happen, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told analysts Wed. in a Q3 earnings call. “You can assume we will be looking to kick their ass in the 4th quarter, and they'll be looking to do the same to us,” Karmazin said of XM in Q&A.

Cable seemed to give neither a direct thumbs up nor thumbs down Wed. to a proposal filed a day earlier at the FCC by the CE industry, which said it would promote quick retail availability of 2-way plug & play devices. The measure would “substantially increase consumer choice” by bringing “a wide variety” of bidirectional plug & play products to market “quickly and efficiently,” said CEA, backed by 12 CE and IT companies.

Sony plans to file a “comprehensive” proposal at the FCC that would let CE makers sell non-OCAP set-tops at retail for access to basic interactive services such as VoD and PPV, the company said in an ex parte filing at the Commission. Sony’s proposal would “build on” the CableCARD spec, requiring that retail boxes have access “to the navigation data or metadata necessary to construct a CE proprietary user interface,” Sony said. CE makers could include OCAP in set-tops that access basic VoD and PPV, and would have to include OCAP in products with more advanced interactive features, Sony said. It plans to urge the FCC to require changes to OCAP and the CableCARD Host Interface License Agreement “to ensure that any OCAP- based products are consumer-friendly and commercially viable,” Sony said. Sony also will propose a “date certain” by which all cable systems must deploy OCAP and a requirement that a “substantial percentage” of leased cable boxes include OCAP, it said. Sony has been a vocal opponent of the OCAP spec at the FCC. For example, in a Jan. statement at the FCC, Sony said it engaged in the OpenCable Engineering Change Request (ECR) process to try to change OCAP “in ways that would permit the retail availability of multi-function consumer electronics products that can receive bi-directional cable programming.” OCAP, “in its current form, does not meet this goal,” Sony said then, also demanding that the FCC interpret Sony’s participation in OpenCable ECR as “evidence” that the company “is dedicated to fixing what it considers to be the flaws in OCAP… It should not interpret either action as an endorsement of OCAP as it now exists, or the process by which CableLabs has controlled the development of the OCAP specification to date.” Cable industry representatives declined comment until they could review Sony’s proposal, which a Sony spokesman said would be filed imminently.

A Democratic-controlled House or Senate is likely to take an active oversight role on NTIA’s handling of the $1.5 billion DTV converter box coupon program, Hill sources told us. And consumer groups vow that if they're emboldened by a big Democratic victory they would push for more subsidy money.

NTIA is scheduling individual 30-min. meetings Nov. 14- 15 at its Washington hq “to afford interested parties the opportunity to clarify comments” in its rulemaking on how to run the $1.5 billion DTV coupon program, the agency said in a notice Fri. The events are considered ex parte presentations, so participants must file summaries for the public record, NTIA said. Talk of vendor “procurement issues” is off-limits; this includes an NTIA request for information (RFI) that closed Sept. 15, it said. The RFI drew comments from 15 vendors; NTIA released portions under a Sept. Freedom of Information Act request we made(CD Nov 1 p5). It’s not known whether NTIA planned the ex parte meetings all along or improvised as it felt its way through a unique rulemaking. Our queries at NTIA weren’t answered by our Mon. deadline. No ex parte meetings were mentioned in a July 24 rulemaking notice that demanded comments by Sept. 25 with no opportunity for replies. NTIA’s website has been carrying “late-filed comments,” 10 of which have arrived after the deadline. Those interested in scheduling a meeting should contact Sandra Stewart in NTIA’s Office of Telecom & Information Applications -- 202-482-2246, sstewart@ntia.doc.gov.

Though there’s little wiggle room in the schedule, holding a “geographic” rollout of DTV converter boxes and $40 coupons during a prelaunch “testing phase” could serve as a dress rehearsal to iron out bugs before actual coupon and box distribution begins in 2008. That’s what one vendor told NTIA it would do if awarded the contract for running the $1.5 billion DTV coupon program.

DTV tests are the last element being completed in a CEA- commissioned study on CE product energy consumption. CEA is paying for the study to amass “high-quality research” to hone policies on CE energy consumption, said Kurt Roth, of Tiax, the company doing the survey.

Thomson thinks Charter deserves an FCC CableCARD waiver on 7 low-end, limited function set-top models, Thomson told Chmn. Martin. The waiver involves less than 1/2 the set-tops Charter deploys, said the letter, signed by Frederic Kurkjian, Thomson vp-Consumer Premises Systems. The unit sells gear to cable operators and telcos. The waiver would serve the public interest, Kurkjian said. Thomson backed a similar Comcast bid for a waiver on 5 low-end set-top models but has been neutral on more sweeping NCTA and Verizon requests. Once a staunch CableCARD advocate, Thomson changed stances after selling the TV business to TTE, for which it no longer is a sales agent. Kurkjian reminded Martin Thomson “has participated actively in almost all” FCC DTV transition proceedings as a Grand Alliance member and as the only CE maker besides Zenith to back a DTV tuner mandate before the FCC ordered it. Thomson also played an “active role” in negotiating with the cable industry the unidirectional plug & play agreement that bred CableCARD, he said. “Overarching principles” guide Thomson’s DTV advocacy and drove its endorsement of a waiver for Charter, he said. Thomson wants: (1) Consumer products that span “a full range” of function and price. (2) The speediest possible analog-to-digital transition. (3) A regulatory environment “that is conducive to competition and innovation and affords flexibility consistent with marketplace developments.” Thomson agrees with Charter that low-end set-top prices have “declined dramatically” since 2003, Kurkjian said. But that’s not true of CableCARD “separable security” costs, which now are “a very large percentage” of box cost, he said: “The continued availability of genuinely low-cost set-top boxes not burdened by the substantial incremental costs necessitated by compliance with the integration ban is important to millions of consumers seeking a relatively low-cost solution as their first step in the digital television world.” A waiver for Charter “would preserve an affordable entry point for consumers making the transition to digital video technology and therefore facilitate and accelerate” the DTV transition,” Kurkjian said. It also would enable Charter to devote more resources to downloadable conditional access security (DCAS), he said. It’s “imperative” that DCAs go into use “as quickly as feasible,” he said. Thomson doesn’t believe the waiver “will undermine competition,” as CEA and others claim, he said. Thomson still believes “common reliance” is “essential to the development of a competitive marketplace” for DTV products, Kurkjian said. Charter has said it agrees and vowed to deploy hundreds of thousands of HD and PVR CableCARD set-tops to its “highest-revenue, best customers,” he said: “Thomson trusts that Charter’s recognition of the continued importance of common reliance will inform its marketplace behavior.”