Powell Proposes One-Year Set-Top Extension

[dkennedy]

Powell Proposes One-Year Set-Top Extension

By Ted Hearn
Multichannel News
3/9/2005 11:33 AM

Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell proposed giving the cable industry an additional year to terminate deployment of new integrated set-top boxes, FCC sources said Wednesday.

Current FCC rules require cable MSOs to deploy only CableCARD-enabled boxes after July 2006, but the cable industry fought for an extension, claiming that FCC policies would drive up set-top costs without providing subscribers with any new benefits.

The FCC rules are designed to promote a competitive navigation-device market. The agency ruled that the best way to achieve that was by separating channel-surfing and conditional-access functions. The CableCARD -- which inserts into boxes and cable-ready digital-TV sets -- performs the conditional-access function.

[dkennedy]

FCC Delays Cable DTV Set-Top Box Deadline

The Federal Communications Commission extended by one year to mid-2007 the industry’s release of cable digital television (DTV) set-top boxes with integrated security functions for digital signal conversion/channel selection, pending the resolution of standards and specifications on the electronic systems. The decision on so-called “navigation” devices to be used by consumers to access multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) services essentially continues to ban deployment of integrated set-top boxes yet pushes back implementation 12 months from July 2006 to July 2007 (ostensibly buying time for more competitive entries into the potential business).

Since the commission also simultaneously requires that cable operators separate security and non-security functions in navigation devices provided on a leased or sale basis, the whole DTV issue additionally involves the FCC’s monitoring of cable TV operator proposals and progress to introduce security functions in discrete CableCards. In part, the integration delay and FCC struggling with the matter is attributable to various regulatory requirements on MPVD security, privacy and accessibility outlined in sections of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (as well as the FCC’s subsequent orders). “The 12-month deferral is intended to afford cable operators additional time to investigate and develop a downloadable security solution that will allow common reliance by cable operators and consumer electronics manufacturers on an identical software security function without the additional costs of physical separation inherent in the CableCard solution,” the FCC said. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the decision was difficult, in part, because it represented the third time the FCC has extended the date of the integration ban. “Cable interests would have preferred that we eliminate the ban entirely; consumer electronics interests would have preferred that we keep the ban in place and on schedule,” said Adelstein.

The FCC, meanwhile, also imposed numerous reporting requirements on cable TV operators and suppliers applicable to a series of open questions, such as: whether development/deployment of downloadable security is feasible, a timeline for deployment (if feasible), draft licensing terms for downloadable software solutions, potential industry negotiations of a bidirectional “plug and play” and software-based security agreements and a variety of CableCard issues (numbers deployed, whether service calls are required for installation, monthly prices for CableCards, problems encountered/ resolved plus timetables for development/deployment of newer “multi-stream” CableCards.

A major legislative backdrop of this issue is Congress currently weighing whether to firm up the deadline for broadcasters to completely migrate from analog TV to digital TV transmission (tentatively set for December 31, 2006) and the availability of affordable electronic signal-conversion equipment for consumers.