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Cable Industry Threatens To Sue If FCC Tries To Bring Competition To Cable Set Top Boxes (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Back in February the FCC voted on a new plan to open up the traditional cable box to competition. According to a fact sheet being circulated by the agency (pdf), under the FCC's plan you'd still pay your cable company for the exact same content, cable operators would simply have to design systems -- using standards and copy protection of their choice -- that delivered this content to third-party hardware. The FCC's goal is cheaper, better hardware and a shift away from the insular gatekeeper model the cable box has long protected. Given this would obliterate a $21 billion captive market in set top box rental fees -- and likely direct consumers to more third-party streaming services -- the cable industry has been engaged in an utterly adorable new hissy fit. And now, the industry is also threatening a lawsuit. Former FCC boss turned top cable lobbyist Michael Powell is arguing that the FCC has once again overstepped its regulatory authority: "An agency of limited jurisdiction has to act properly within that jurisdiction," Powell said, making it abundantly clear the NCTA does not believe the FCC has not done so in this case. He said that the statute empowers the FCC to create competition in navigation devices, not new services. "Every problem does not empower an FCC-directed solution. The agency is not an agency with unbridled plenary power to roam around markets and decide to go fix inconveniences everywhere they find them irrespective of the bounds of their authority."
Powell was hired
one of the few govt agencies that is actually trying to do consumers some good and they are overreaching?
WTF
I'm just glad that guy isn't in government any more -he represents the worst aspects of regulatory capture and the revolving door between government and industry.
cable is dying anyway thanks to millenials, cord cutting and the unavailability of a la carte pricing -Good Riddance
-I'm just sayin'
How well did the "free" market handle this? Not very well, did it now. Free for cable industry to have a fixed market. FCC needs to step in.
Between the internet and over-the-air TV, why on Earth would I pay an extra 50+ dollars a month for more crap to watch?
Could the FCC call in a favour with the DoJ? That should work out OK regarding jurisdiction.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
Even if they *didn't* get sued I don't see this going anywhere. They've already tried this with CableCard, and except for TiVos and some in-TV setups there wasn't a big debut of third-party yes-you-own-it-outright equipment.
Then, there was supposed to be an entirely software-based version of the same thing. Never even got off the planning board.
I have both Comcast cable TV (basic service with Internet is the same price as Internet alone) and I have DirecTV. Video quality on DirecTV is better, BY FAR, than Comcast. Comcast is so over compressed, even my completely non-technie wife notices that something is 'wrong' with the picture. Sure, some channels (like kids channels and shopping channels) are more compressed than others on DirecTV, but the ones where you want the quality have it. Neither, however, compares to OTA.
Tom Wheeler - former cable lobbyist turned FCC Chairman
Michael Powell - former FCC Chairman turned cable lobbyist
Does anyone else feel like maybe we should try swapping our politicians with our lobbyists for a month just to see if it works elsewhere too? ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Cable companies to FCC: "How DARE you try to mess with our outdated, overpriced business model!"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Shame on the cable companies!!!!
"An agency of limited jurisdiction has to act properly within that jurisdiction," Powell said, ... "Every problem does not empower an FCC-directed solution. The agency is not an agency with unbridled plenary power to roam around markets and decide to go fix inconveniences everywhere they find them irrespective of the bounds of their authority."
He's not wrong, not every problem does empower an FCC directed solution. It's just too bad for him that this problem does empower a FCC directed solution.
Do you think he swims in all the money they are giving him like Scrooge McDuck?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I can't wait to gain what Time Warner and Cablevision refuses me in New York:
The ability to do PictureInPicture
The inability to remove do a "learn" mode so pressing up and down on the remote won't advertise to me what blocked channels they want me to start paying for. What use are all these modes on my TV set if it's only ever tuned into channel 3 (ok, "HDMI 1")?
I also guarantee that competitors will also be removing all the waiting from bufferbloat (when tuning a channel, even just seeing a number after pressing a button on your remote --my smartphone apparently is better as a remote than both of their $3/month remotes we're renting)
I am tired of slow cold boot times because of the slow Java clients. I'm talking 5 to 10 minutes. PC's beat that a decade ago.
And with configurability we'd end up having some real cool stuff like scripts for automated surfing (excuse me if Tivo or AppleTV already offer this)
Cable TV is going to be an app on your TV or your PlayStation or a Roku-like device. The boxes have no future.
The Feds have deeper pockets.
There is an algorithm they use to dynamically assign bandwidth based on viewers. Sports gets the best quality
Really? Do you have any references? That makes a ton of sense, but I'd love to read up and learn more about how they do it.
The FCC should just cite All Writs Act, Done!
Satellite TV is pretty useful for people who live in an area not served by good broadband or cable or someone who travel in an RV a lot. These people are not "dumb", it's just the best option for them.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
The cable companies are already moving to a model where the cable boxes in your home have almost no real smarts of their own. There's just enough there to boot linux+busybox, display video content, and render the menus. The heavy lifting, and ALL of the brains (if you can call it that) of the system are handled on the back end by the cable company. Even if you are able to purchase your own box, I suspect you'll be forced to license their software anyway and still get a monthly fee jammed down your throat.
Looking forward to the day where I can just get a pipe to the internet from whatever company and then buy over-the-top TV from the single digit number of stations that I actually watch. That's really what terrifies the cable companies and why they're trying to buy up content providers.
I can tell you're not a true radical Conservative.
If I understand (radical) Conservative thought right, the single most detrimental organisation we know is "The Government", and one of the worst things they can possibly do is to interfere with "The Market". In whattever form or shape.
So here's (my impression of) the Conservatove take on things: the FCC is one of the tentacles of The Government, and it's trying to interfere with Private Enterprise (i.e. the Cable industry). Now that's Wrong ... and should be stopped at once.
We know there are always some who find excuses about this-or-that short-term benefit that might arise from Government Interference. Well, this is the way in which Big Government proponents work their favourite pasttime: trying to insert The Government (or its subsidiaries) into ever more aspects of our society by letting The Government overstep its current level of authority and hence acquire new levels of authority. Now this can only lead to new levels of bureaucracy and more Government expenditure.
In this view there is only one sane policy: resist the temptation to let The Government meddle yet again, step aside, and let The Market solve the problem.
The additional benefit of this is: you can zip through the daily news like nobody's business and tell at a glance who is Wrong and who is Right. All it takes a little backbone to ignore the continuous pleas and indignant squawks from activists, do-gooders, and (leftist) consumer organisations.
Instant peace of mind will be your reward.
Cable industry? What cable industry? Every year I do this dance with Comcast, where they raise the prices on my cable bill by 50% or more, and I have to call their "customer retention department" to get a better deal. LPT: say "cancel service" into the phone to get a live agent on the line almost immediately. To get the better deal, they ask me what shows I watch, to figure out which channels I need, to get the cheapest package possible with fewest channels. And every year I realize that I watch less and less shows. This year, with the Mythbusters gone, and a few other shows I used to watch on cable, I think I'm down to network TV, so I might as well cancel the thing and get a TV antenna. I still have Netflix and it's been pretty great. I'm sure I'm not the only one going in that direction. It does seem that the "cable industry" is really trying its best to kill itself as fast as possible. Now I just wish I could as easily do the same with the medical insurance ever increasing premiums...
I'm not saying this because cable is evil, I'm saying this from a business perspective. Of _course_ the cable industry is going to try and stop this. They would be completely foolish if they didn't at least try. If they can fight this and possibly hold on to a revenue stream, or at least hold on to it a little longer, or not fight it and lose money....they're gonna fight it. They probably know they are going to lose. That's not the point.