The Telecommunications Industry Association backs a deal among multichannel video programming distributors, those supplying them with consumer electronics and advocates of energy efficiency to further cut the power used by dormant set-top boxes. TIA also backs the Department of Energy decision disclosed late last month, along with the MVPD/CE/advocate deal (CD Dec 24 p1), to kill a rulemaking on set-top energy efficiency standards, said the association Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1aBOYDV). The information and communication technology industry “is committed to continually innovating and improving the energy efficiency of our products,” said President Grant Seiffert of TIA, which has members including Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Panasonic of North America (http://bit.ly/1aaOPe2). The voluntary agreement that was expanded with the latest deal “will result in greater energy efficiency gains for consumers than could be achieved through federal guidelines,” he said. “It will also provide manufacturers with the flexibility to continue to innovate and develop the consumer products of the future."

The FCC Media Bureau should extend the June deadline for interactive HD set-top boxes to include Internet Protocol outputs, and issue a clarification on whether the rule remains in effect in the wake of the EchoStar decision, said TiVo in a waiver petition last week (http://bit.ly/1kmwKQP). The June date was based on an industry standard that was to be released by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) in 2013, TiVo said. But “DLNA has not published the standard referred to and TiVo is not aware that any progress update has been provided to the Bureau,” said TiVo. Without the standard “TiVo and others will not be able to make compliant and interoperable products,” said the filing. The interoperability requirement may also be a victim of the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which wiped away several FCC rules involving set-top boxes (CD Nov 19 p6), TiVo said. The bureau raised the possibility that the rule may have been vacated by EchoStar in Charter’s CableCARD waiver (CD April 22 p3) without resolving the matter, TiVo said. Though TiVo believes the requirement is still in effect, the Media Bureau should “clarify whether this regulation remains binding on the cable industry and suppliers such as TiVo,” said the petition. A DLNA spokeswoman didn’t respond directly to TiVo’s comments but pointed to a DLNA release (http://bit.ly/1aaRynP) describing demonstrations for “CVP-2” industry product design guidelines that “enable users to seamlessly and easily share subscription pay TV content on multiple screens in their homes.” The CVP-2 guidelines are currently available to DLNA members and are expected to be available to nonmembers in Q2, the spokeswoman said.

Suddenlink completed its buy of several cable systems in Texas from Northland Communications, Suddenlink said in a news release Thursday. The cable systems operate in the Texas communities of Gun Barrel City, Flint and New Caney, and have more than 12,000 residential customers and nearly 300 commercial customers. Suddenlink owns nearby systems in Texas communities Terrell, Tyler and Kingwood, and “there is an opportunity to interconnect the Northland systems with nearby Suddenlink systems,” the release said. Suddenlink said it “expects to retain substantially all local employees and plans to communicate specific plans for the acquired systems to customers and community leaders in the months ahead."