CableCARD, Gateway Draft FCC Items to Deal With Retail Device Use

Two draft items to be voted on at the FCC’s April 21 meeting would take different approaches to making it easier for pay-TV subscribers to use devices not supplied directly from those companies to get video, Web and other content, numerous commission and industry officials said. A CableCARD rulemaking notice for all cable operators, with a partial exemption for small systems, deals with ways subscribers can use CableCARDs with plug-and-play devices, the officials said. An inquiry on all-video devices would have cable, satellite and telco-TV providers offer small, inexpensive devices so subscribers could connect to their networks using third-party gear, they said. The devices would contain the proprietary information to connect to the network of a particular provider, they said.

The CableCARD rulemaking, like the all-video item, stems from National Broadband Plan recommendations, commission and industry officials said. That was expected (CED March 23 p4). The rulemaking also raises issues not in the plan. It proposes multi-stream CableCARDs, now offered by major cable operators, be provided by operators of all sizes so subscribers can do multiple tasks with one card, an FCC official said. There’s no deadline by when cable operators would all need to offer those devices, commission officials said.

The rulemaking tentatively concludes cable operators can promote home networking by using any of four interfaces, agency officials said. They are IEEE 1394 connections -- now required by the commission on HD boxes -- Ethernet connections, Wi-Fi connections and USB 3.0, they said. The rulemaking doesn’t explicitly say the FCC’s IEEE 1394 requirement should be waived, as some consumer electronics manufacturers have sought, a commission official said. The item also said cable networks should be able to accept remote control commands from other parts of devices, the official said. A proposal in the draft rulemaking would require video be delivered in a way that hews to an industry-standard format so it can be received by and displayed on devices made by unaffiliated manufacturers, the person said. The item also clarifies that entities beyond CableLabs are qualified to test industry equipment, another FCC official said.

Cable systems with activated capacity of 552 MHz or less would be excused from a ban on providing set-tops that combine navigation and security functions, by being able to deploy integrated ones that can get HD channels, commission officials said. That exemption is said in the rulemaking to help free the companies to reclaim analog bandwidth, they said. Such companies still would have to offer CableCARDs to subscribers who seek one. “Small cable operators need greater flexibility under the set-top box rules to purchase HD integrated devices,” said Vice President Ross Lieberman of the American Cable Association, who hasn’t seen the draft. “It will allow them to more quickly reclaim bandwidth. If that’s included in the NPRM and can be accomplished on a short time frame, it will go a long way to addressing those concerns."

As sought in the broadband plan, the CableCARD item asks how cable operators can more clearly disclose prices of CableCARDs and set-top boxes, FCC officials said. It proposes to require operators let subscribers install their own CableCARDs and seeks comment on why operators may require professional installation, an official said. The draft item seeks comment on requiring equal access to linear cable content for cable boxes and third-party devices, the person said. Spokespeople for the CEA and NCTA declined to comment on the draft items, as did a Media Bureau spokeswoman.

The all-video item on what’s been called gateway devices also asks about how to allow development of electronic program guides made by entities other than subscription video providers that could be accessed using the devices, commission officials said. The item doesn’t propose implementation deadlines for gateway products except that they be available by the end of 2012, as the broadband plan recommended, they said. The item seeks comment on whether the regulator should issue rules on how content across pay-TV networks is presented such as for electronic program guides that could be accessed using the gateway device and work on a TV, DVR or other product not sold directly by a subscription-video provider, an agency official said.