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FCC Chief To Unveil Revised Plan To Eliminate Cable Boxes (fortune.com)
The top U.S. communications regulator plans to unveil a revised plan to allow about 100 million pay TV subscribers to replace expensive set-top boxes with less-costly apps that provide access to television and video programs, Fortune reports. From the report: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed in January opening the $20 billion cable and satellite TV set-top box market to new competitors and allow consumers to access multiple content providers from a single app or device. The plan, aimed at breaking the cable industry's long grip on the lucrative pay TV market and lowering prices for consumers, drew fierce opposition from TV and content providers, including AT&T, Comcast and Twenty-First Century Fox. The FCC has said Americans spend $20 billion a year to lease pay-TV boxes, or an average of $231 annually. Set-top box rental fees have jumped 185 percent since 1994, while the cost of TVs, computers and mobile phones has dropped 90 percent, the FCC has estimated. Update: 09/08 19:18 GMT by M :Tom Wheeler has just published the proposed laws at LATimes.
1) Declare that no set top box can be rented more than 2 years - automatically converting them "rent to own".
2) Require all cable companies to have an App Market - charging no more than 30% / $1 (which ever is higher) to the app maker selling apps. These apps would be allowed to duplicate/replace any current function of the set top box, including programming DVR's, showing a channel guide, renting/selling movies, or accessing the internet or other provider services.
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Get rid of the ridiculous cable boxes. The TV's we have now are a bajillion times more powerful than the ridiculous set top boxes. Why in the world would we need a DVR with the ability to stream shows. If the networks were smart they would just flag shows that people want to watch and when they finally want to view them start the stream.
That would require some engineering and know how to do. This would cost money, which of course, the cable companies don't want to spend.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
Cautiously optimistic about this guy, between this, Net Neutrality, and a few other issues. Hard to believe he was a career Cable TV industry guy with the decisions he's been making for the consumer's benefit. Still expecting a bunch of arrows to start shooting out of the walls Indiana Jones-style at some point, though.
It's the Federal Communication Commission, not the Federal Wireless Commission. They have authority over any and all public communication, one or two way.
They have been around and regulating wireline communication since before you were born.
They regulate the telephone networks as well. They regulate "communication", in all forms, as their name directly implies.
the cable companies are granted monopolies by the government, so therefore they get to receive more regulation to go with that
If a cable company puts some wire down, they ought to be able to do whatever they want
No they shouldn't. Most cable companies are monopolies, either granted by the municipality, or a de-facto monopoly because no other company is going to incur the sunk cost of installing cable into what would then become a low-profit competitive market. The government has a legitimate interest in regulating monopolies, although it should probably be done through the FTC rather than the FCC.
The real solution is the get rid of the monopolies. When streets are trenched, a large (12") government owned conduit should be installed, and multiple fibers should be pre-installed inside it. These fibers can then be leased or sold to multiple competing companies, and any bonded company should be able to run additional cables through the conduit. This would drastically cut the cost of entering the market.
Our current system, of requiring each company to retrench, is as silly as requiring FedEx, UPS, etc to each build their own roads into each neighborhood.
I cut the cord... ... but had to duct-tape it back together again to get internet access.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
No, the problem isn't TWC can't, it is that they don't want to. They have a cushy Government granted Monopoly (franchise agreement) and have pushed for all sorts of anti-competitive regulations on top of it.
Because we haven't broken the Franchise Agreement problem, we aren't really solving anything by adding regulations on top of regulations to fix the problems caused by regulations (Franchise agreements) caused. The foundation is crumbling, and you're worried about the view out your window.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Its not even a plan to eliminate cable boxes. It is a plan to have an alternative and foster competition. Calling it a plan to eliminate them actually helps the cable companies make their case against it.
So basically theft? Considering that open APs are almost always for people INSIDE those businesses/homes. Not for random people to leach off of.
If the current situation is boxes that are rented, and that can be updated remotely. Couldn't they do all that now anyway?
Yes, and that's one of the bullshit fees cable companies charges that needs to go away.
Back in the cable-ready-tv analog cable days, you paid for the service and it covered your whole house.
The excuse for adding these fees was the cost and upkeep of the equipment -- but it was really just a money grab.
There's no reason you should have to pay per-TV for service with software apps.
There might be an argument for per USER fees, but if I live alone and have two TVs (one in the bedroom and one in the living room), should I have to pay extra even though I can only watch one TV at a time?
Do you pay for each phone you have in your house anymore?
Does the water company charge for each bathroom in your home?
NYC we have free city wifi in parts of the city. they put up one of those things by me but i can't reach it from my apartment yet. figure within the year they are going to put more up and i won't have to pay for time warner if i dont want to
So basically theft? Considering that open APs are almost always for people INSIDE those businesses/homes. Not for random people to leach off of.
Theft maybe, but insecure. If you pick up a packet of french fries that somebody bought from McD's and then discarded b'cos he was full, are you guilty of theft? Unhygienic, definitely, but theft?