FCC CableCARD Draft Would Let All Operators Use Cheap HD Boxes

Career FCC staff recommended the agency let cable operators use HD set-top boxes lacking CableCARDs and with basic, non-interactive functionality so subscribers with older TVs can get HD service without leasing a more costly box, agency and industry officials said. That’s in a draft version of an order meant to make improvements to CableCARDs before the regulator issues rules for all pay-TV providers to let subscribers connect any video device to their systems using a cheap gateway device that would let customers more easily switch providers.

The draft from the Media Bureau is set for a vote at the Oct. 30 FCC meeting (CED Sept 24 p8). A rulemaking notice seeking comment on the gateway devices is expected by commission and industry officials to be voted on later this year, perhaps at the November or December FCC meetings.

The draft order lets cable systems of any capacity use digital tuning adapter set-top boxes lacking CableCARDs that let users get HD channels but don’t contain PVRs or other more advanced features, FCC and industry officials said. That had been expected, after large cable operators sought to have systems with capacity of 552 MHz and above be able to take advantage of such an exemption that would be applied to all companies (CED Sept 20 p5). A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.

The item also lets cable operators deploy two-way HD boxes with any IP output instead of just the currently required 1394 so-called Firewire jack, said FCC and industry officials. That would let all cable operators use set-tops with Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB or other connections so the boxes could connect to other devices to create home networks, they said. The order doesn’t specify what types of output jacks can be used, just that they must be IP-based, an agency official said.

In similar fashion, the draft ruling also doesn’t require one type of mechanism for operators using switched digital video technology to send channels to plug-and-play devices sold by third-parties and not working with the tru2way technology, agency and industry officials said. Instead, the order would say operators must deliver a continuous signal to such devices, and that both tuning adapters favored by the cable industry and IP backchannel signaling sought by TiVo can be used, a commission official said. That part of the order had been closely watched by the cable and consumer electronics industries. Lobbying at the FCC on the issue has increased in recent days, commission and industry officials said. There have been more than 20 ex parte filings on the subject filed in docket 97-80 this month.

"An IP backchannel would be the best and most cost effective solution for ensuring that users of competitive set-top boxes have access” to switched digital video, TiVo said in an ex parte filing. Switched video sends channels individually to users upon requesting them instead of sending all channels to all customers all the time. There are “technical and other challenges associated with the IP backchannel concept,” Comcast said. It also sought to “exempt one-way navigation devices from the integration ban” requiring boxes to use CableCARDs to separate navigation and security features.

Best Buy asked the regulator to “proceed expeditiously” to a gateway, or AllVid, rulemaking notice. The CE retailer said in a filing that such a proceeding would let “the television sector catch up to the strides made in other areas of consumer electronics, in responding to consumer demand for a single interactive program application platform and user interface.” The Washington Post Co.’s Cable One was among the other operators that sought what it termed an industrywide waiver from CableCARD rules for one-way HD boxes.