FCC diverts plan to force cable box operators to offer services as a digital stream
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has backed off a promise to require companies like Comcast and other cable box operators to offer its video services as a digital stream, marking a set back for consumers and companies hoping to break away from required pay TV operators.
The proposed rule –that any manufacturer who agreed to abide by certain rules to protect copyrights would be able to make devices that could tune in pay TV channels from those digital streams – has been curtailed by the FCC, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News. The hope that anything consumers could do with a cable box — view live TV or watch on-demand or recorded programs — they could do with any device of their choice is not likely to happen any time soon.
“The whole intention of this was to open up the market so that people could compete,” said Steve Wymer, head of communications for TiVo, which is one of the few companies that has a long history of competing in the set-top box market. “But we’ve seen the power of … the Comcast lobby and Time Warner and others, and they’ve squelched this.”
That proposal would have essentially wrested control over connecting to the pay TV streams from Comcast and the other operators and given it to device manufacturers. Currently, according to the article, this didn’t thrill the pay TV industry, which makes billions of dollars renting the boxes, and its supporters in Hollywood. They publicly worried that the proposal would violate the agreements they’ve signed concerning channel order and advertising. And they’ve spent much of this year lobbying the FCC and Congress to try and stop it.
The new FCC proposal, according to the article, caters to the pay TV operators.
The FCC revised the rule just enough to require the operators themselves to make apps for connected TV devices, but Comcast and other companies still have the majority of the control.
What that means, according to the article, is that pay for TV service will be available only on a unit that ships in excess of five million units. At present, the only operating system that might hit 5m units this year is Tizen, which is the software that underlies Samsung's sets; according to the tech research firm IHS. Additionally, under the new FCC rule, operators only have to make apps that are compatible with an iPhone or iPad, a Samsung smart TV or an Android phone - but little else. In other words, if you have an LG smart TV, which relies on webOS, it will not be compatible to the app.
The new ruling means a user may be able to pay for TV service through an app on a smart TV, if that app is made for ones particular device, the article note. In other words, under the new proposal, operators will only have to make apps for operating systems that ship in excess of five million units in the United States.
But under the new proposal, operators would only have to make apps for operating systems that ship in excess of 5 million units in the United States. What that threshold means is that you’ll be able to watch your pay TV service on an iPhone or iPad, a Samsung smart TV or an Android phone — and likely not a lot else.
Further, in looking at the smart TV market, the only operating system that will probably hit 5 million units this year is Tizen, which is the software that underlies Samsung’s sets, according to tech research firm IHS. If you have an LG smart TV, which relies on webOS, you’re going to be out of luck. So, too, if one has a Vizio set that runs the Via environment.
Although there have been a proliferation of digital streaming devices in recent years from companies like Apple, Google, Amazon and Roku, it’s not clear which of those would actually meet the FCC’s 5-million unit bar, particularly if the operating systems underlying Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV are considered to be distinct from iOS and Android. But the threshold almost certainly would mean the end of TiVo as a set-top box alternative.
The idea of opening up the set-top box to competition was intended to spur innovation. But the FCC’s new rule could actually do the opposite by distorting the market and limiting competition again to a select few devices, the article notes.