Coming Set-top Box Mandate May Help Break Pay TV Firms' Hold Over Viewers (latimes.com)

Joe_Dragon sends a report from the LA Times about proposed regulations that could disrupt the cable industry's hold on consumers by targeting set-top boxes. These boxes are required to view most pay-TV programming these days, and consumers often require multiples if they have more than one TV. The rental fees add up to almost $20 billion in revenue for the industry each year. Yet the technology within these boxes is nothing special, and alternatives could easily arise if there was incentive to create them. "The changes aren't coming fast enough for some lawmakers and consumer advocates as well as tech companies such as Google Inc., which are eager to jump into the set-top box market. They want the Federal Communications Commission to require that pay TV providers make their services more easily compatible with third-party set-top boxes or similar devices. ... Such a mandate could allow consumers to access their pay TV and streaming services through one device instead of having to switch between two or more. And it could lead to innovations such as an ability to search for programming across services to determine, for example, whether a movie is available on Netflix or on-demand via a pay TV provider."

Comments

Tivo will do this already

[cruff]

And it could lead to innovations such as an ability to search for programming across services to determine, for example, whether a movie is available on Netflix or on-demand via a pay TV provider."

A recent Tivo can do this. It can show you the various sources from which a movie or series is available.

Re:Tivo will do this already

[NotDrWho]

Yes, I was going to say that Cablecard technology was developed years ago with this in mind. The problem is that very few devices support it (Tivo being one of them). There was nothing to stop MS (or Sony) from putting cablecard slots into their console if they really wanted to do a "one device to rule them all." But most device manufacturers chose not to.

The only downside of Cablecard is that you have to get the cards from your local cableco. But there aren't many practical ways around this.

Re:Tivo will do this already

[gstoddart]

And, just like happened when Cablecard came out ... the cable companies will do everything in their power to make sure it doesn't work ... either they'll just dig in and refuse, or they'll just add on additional fees.

If anybody thinks the cable companies will allow this to happen without trying to gouge people and make up the shortfall, they're delusional.

The cable companies simply don't give a crap about consumers. They never have, and never will. And they sure as hell aren't going to make it easy to stop paying them.

Honestly, all they have to do is seem so grossly incompetent as to not be able to make the system work. And that should be shockingly easy.

But don't start thinking this will work any better now than when cable cards came out in the first place.

Re: Tivo will do this already

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Apple has a patent on universal search.

Apple's patent is invalid. The company Ck3Kl0t from Alpha Centauri registered that patent roughly two millennia ago.

Fight for your bitcoins!

Re:Tivo will do this already

[Jhon]

"The cable companies simply don't give a crap about consumers. They never have, and never will. And they sure as hell aren't going to make it easy to stop paying them."

You are correct. They don't care about consumers. They do, however, care about money. A lot.

We "cut the cord" almost 2 years ago. We only have internet through our provider. Over the last two years we've received some crazy decent offers from them to "add on" tv service ($10/mo for basic cable) + a cable box (at no charge). At first, for a year, then 2 years, then indefinitely at no charge for the box.

They are bleeding money because they are bleeding customers. They'll change or they will die.

Cablecards, WMC+Extenders

[cdrudge]

Cablecards were suppose to usher in the great revolution in consumer set top boxes, breaking free the need to rely on cable companies expensive STB rentals. Aside from Tivos, Ceton InfiniTV products, and Silicondust HDHomeRun Prime, there's really not much out there for a compelling consume device.

WMC was the only HTPC-related software that was certified to play encrypted non-copy-freely channels from a InfiniTV and HDHomeRun. And with many content providers/cable companies marking many/most/all channels copy-once, it really hurt the usefulness. Extenders for WMC were basically a non-starter, and with Microsoft killing WMC in Windows 10, it'll be all but dead in the near future.

Cable companies and content producers aren't going to let up on their demands for DRM/restricting content/etc. STB mandates aren't going to suddenly open up a market that was already extremely tepid. And even if the mandates were passed, cable companies will do everything in their power to find loopholes around them, actively discourage customers from using 3rd party devices, offering no support for them if not outright lying about being able to use them, or otherwise making it a PITA to try to use one.

Good luck ...

[gstoddart]

The cable industry has far too much power, far too many lobbyists, oh, and did we mention they pretty much run the FCC these days?

There is simply no way in hell these companies will allow anything to happen which cuts into profits. They'll stop it dead in its tracks, or make anything so onerous and impossible that it won't actually work.

Since they mention this in the first paragraph ... this will be exactly like the old black rotary phone ... even if you no longer have it, they're going to gouge you for "touch tone dialing" and pretend like it costs them anything.

Which means they'll charge you whether or not you have their box, will charge you to connect your box to their stuff, will charge you for the privilege of connecting your box to their stuff and for maintaining the infrastructure, and will find all sorts of ways to keep gouging consumers.

These companies have strangleholds, and monopolies ... they sure as hell aren't going to accept any regulations which cost them money. They're far too entrenched and feel they're entitled to that money.

And they have far too many fucking politicians on the payroll whose job it is to entrench in law their revenues.

Re:Good.

[bigpat]

Good, hope this will accelerate a CableCard-like standard for IPTV like it did for cable systems. I love my home-brew DVR, and I'm not willing to switch to Google Fiber or AT&T UVerse until third-party TV equipment can work with their service.

Yes, paying $18 per month "rental" for a $100 device really sucks and it feels like the bad old days of Grandma renting her phone from The Phone Company for $10 per month. The encryption keys can and should be simply software based...forget the CableCard, they still have those supposedly and nobody uses them because they don't offer key services such as the channel guide, VOD, etc. It could be so much simpler and you could just register your device ID and an open standard protocol negotiates the keys to unlock any encrypted content and the cable companies could provide the other services in a more standard way that encourages hardware competition.

The cable companies are too big.