FCC chair wants to open cable to set-top box competition
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed competition in the pay television set-top box market, a move that could let consumers swap costly cable industry boxes for cheaper service through devices like tablets. Altogether, U.S. consumers spend $20 billion a year to lease these devices.
Will set top boxes become the next hot consumer electronics product?
A copy of an FCC fact sheet is available here.
In 2007, the FCC opened wireless networks to non-carrier-provided devices. Cable companies responded by raising the leasing prices for set top boxes in 2016.
A new group supported by pay TV companies, called the Future of TV Coalition, says that Wheeler’s proposal “would force programmers and TV providers to dismantle their shows and services for [independent manufracturers] to repackage, reuse, and exploit without negotiating for the rights like everybody else in the market does today”.
Options are good for consumers, but cable monopolies all but ensure that the typical household is renting a set-top box from the cable company. Why?
Under the CableCard system, 99 percent of customers still rent set-top boxes directly from their providers and pay an average of $231.82 a year in rental fees, USA senators found in a survey of TV providers last year.
Google, which has been urging the FCC to act, said in a filing that the changes would promote competition and spark innovation.
This would allow device makers or app makers to make each customer’s TV programming available in new interfaces with innovative menus and comprehensive search functions. The proposal doesn’t cite DVR content specifically – traditionally a sticking point when it comes to cable-box alternatives – but it’s a safe bet delivering “the content itself” includes provision for that.
The FCC will not propose government specific standards for the three areas but should be open to cable TV rivals using formats that conform “to specifications set by an independent, open standards body”.
Wheeler’s proposal will be voted on by the full FCC on February 18. “We can’t truly realize the golden age of television while consumers are stuck watching TV on the set top box of the past. It’s time to unlock the set-top box market – let’s let innovators create, and then let consumers choose”.
“American consumers have never had more freedom to find and watch the shows they love in different ways – from a la carte, to smaller packages, to traditional or new Internet providers and above all the burgeoning marketplace for streaming devices and video apps”.