[opendtv] News: CableCARD Combat Continues
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 10:53:28 -0400
http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=4363
Date posted: 2006-11-03
CableCARD Combat Continues
The cable industry is pulling out all the stops to avoid the
integration ban--an 8-year-old law that directs cable companies to
separate security functions from set-top boxes, so the devices can be
sold by retailers.
By July 1, 2007, cable set-tops have to be compatible with a
"CableCARD," which does the security and descrambling functions now
done in integrated boxes leased by cable companies. The industry has
won several waivers on the integration ban, but recent efforts to
extend it further have failed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit upheld the ban in August.
There are currently around 200,000 CableCards on the market. The
cable lobby says the industry doesn't mind supporting CableCARD
boxes, but it doesn't want to be forced to switch out all the
integrated legacy boxes already in homes.
On Halloween, cable lobby chief Kyle McSlarrow appeared on Capitol
Hill as the Voice of Doom, saying the integration ban could
jeopardize the very digital TV transition. McSlarrow drew the
peculiar parallel in a letter addressed to U.S. Department of
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Acting Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Communications and Information John Kneuer and the FCC.
"At a time when Congress and the administration have made the digital
transition a national priority and when one government agency is
preparing to subsidize 'over-the-air households' to the tune of $40
for each digital-to-analog converter, it is incomprehensible that
another government agency should simultaneously force consumers to
pay $2 to $3 per month per box more for leased set-top boxes that
will help facilitate the digital transition for millions of viewers
without any government subsidy," the letter said.
Several cable network heads weighed in as well, imploring FCC
Chairman Kevin Martin to give the industry just a little more time.
"As programmers, we also have strong views about this rule because we
believe its implementation will adversely affect our ability to
provide new and innovative content and services to cable customers,"
wrote the chiefs of the Weather Channel, Showtime, Discovery, BET,
ESPN, MTV, Turner, Oxygen, BET, A&E, TV One and the NBC cablers.
NCTA filed a waiver with the FCC in August requesting deferral of the
integration ban until a new downloadable security technology is
deployed by cable operators, or Dec. 31, 2009 if downloadable
security is not deployed by then.
Consumer electronics makers and other potential competitors say
enough already. TiVo has asked the FCC to "examine closely the
CableCARD cost figures being cited by the cable industry, since the
figures appear high and are not adequately explained in the record."
©2006 IMAS Publishing Group
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