Cable operators are working on a family choice tier to offer subscribers during the first quarter of 2006, NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow told a Senate forum on decency issues Mon. Comcast, Time Warner, Advance Newhouse, MidContinent and Bresnan -- which have most of the nation’s cable subscribers -- are the first to make commitments, McSlarrow said. Other companies said they're examining their programming deals and may make separate announcements, McSlarrow said. While he didn’t offer details on the packages because discussions were continuing, McSlarrow said he thought market pressure would soon impel other companies to offer family tiers.
China became the world’s top exporter of tech devices last year, passing the U.S. for the first time, the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) said Mon. China exported about $180 billion in laptop computers, mobile handsets and other communications devices in 2004, an OECD report said, catching the U.S., which exported $149 billion in tech devices, the 2nd most in the world. Many industry experts weren’t surprised at the development, seeing it as the culmination of a steady trend that several said helps both countries.
USDTV -- the subscription-based over-the-air terrestrial DTV service -- will ship a 2nd-generation set- top box in first half 2006, along with optional MPEG-4-to- MPEG-2 transcoders and 250 GB hard drives as it sets a goal of landing 2 million subscribers within 5 years, CEO Steve Lindsley told the UBS Global Media Conference in N.Y. Thurs.
Cable industry progress has been “rapid” in developing a downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) that can benefit MSOs, CE makers, retailers and consumers, the NCTA said in report the FCC had required. And although “considerable work” remains to be done “to perfect a commercially viable” DCAS, such a system is “feasible” and can be rolled out nationally by July 2008, NCTA said.
FCC Chmn. Martin told a Senate forum Tues. the Commission is preparing a report showing a la carte pricing could provide “substantial” consumer benefits. The report updates a study prepared under former Chmn. Michael Powell that Martin called “flawed” and erroneously based. NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow said Martin’s comments weren’t a surprise, since Martin hadn’t supported Powell’s study upon release. But McSlarrow said mandatory a la carte “is a very dangerous idea.” He also said Martin didn’t say “mandatory,” but “voluntary” -- “any government mandate is clearly a violation of the First Amendment,” McSlarrow said.
TiVo’s planned offering of searchable video advertising is another blow to broadcasters’ conventional spot commercial revenue over the long term, analysts said. In the short term, it may pave the way for content and TV distribution deals similar to one earlier this year with Comcast. The service is supposed to start this spring. It will let users search by keyword or category among ads downloaded to devices based on profiles they've created. That functionality won’t help TiVo win favor with broadcasters already flustered by its strategy, analysts said. It may boost the unprofitable company’s prospects to add more partners after its biggest customer decided to scale back marketing the PVR (CD Aug 25 p8), said 2 analysts who are former cable executives.
ViaSat said it’s buying Efficient Channel Coding. ViaSat officials said this will bolster its S2 version of the DVB-RCS satellite broadband standard and make ViaSat primary supplier of modem chips for Asia’s iPSTAR. The deal could be completed this quarter. Terms include an initial $16.5 million cash purchase price, assumption of stock options with a value to be set at closing, and additional consideration of $9 million to be paid in cash and/or stock if ECC meets certain performance targets the next 2 years, ViaSat officials said.
The FCC is evaluating proposals by incumbent LECs on how to address phantom traffic -- in isolation or as part of broader intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform -- we're told. The agency, still examining the issue, hasn’t considered specific action.
FCC Chmn. Martin, stepping up his indecency battle, wants a cable family tier or a similar system to let consumers avoid paying for channels they don’t want. “That’s among a variety of things I've encouraged the cable industry to do,” he told the Federalist Society Thurs.: “They can give consumers more choice… some form of a la carte.” While targeting most of his criticism at cable, Martin also said broadcasters must do more on indecency, an issue gaining prominence on Capitol Hill. Broadcasters should “try to reinstate a family hour,” Martin said, adding that the current TV ratings system is “confusing to most parents” and “there are some practical things that can be done to improve the ratings system.”
CableLabs and NCTA executives met with FCC Media Bureau representatives Nov. 4 to rebut Verizon’s call for an “open standards-setting body” on 2-way plug & play specifications with a role for its FiOS mobile TV technology (CD Oct 25 p8), it was disclosed in an ex parte filing at the Commission. Contrary to Verizon’s plea that the FCC avoid locking into “cable-centric” standards for 2-way plug & play support, the cable industry’s use of DOCSIS “is an essential part of interactive cable communication and is already integrated in silicon for set-tops and DTV chips,” CableLabs and NCTA said. DOCSIS has made inexpensive cable modems possible, spurred direct cable competition with DSL, and become a worldwide ITU standard, cable told the Commission. Although Verizon takes issue with cable-centric standards, it has used “cable-initiated” specifications for many applications, CableLabs and NCTA said. Requiring multi-industry standards-setting “before innovation or market advances would significantly delay the development of competitive offerings to consumers and would open up the specification development process to political gaming -- such as efforts to hobble DOCSIS and competing home networks,” they said.