FCC CableCARD Rule Changes Will Take Effect Over Two Years

Revisions to CableCARD rules will take effect over the next two years, FCC officials said Thursday as the commission approved an order making changes to the rules that largely were as expected. On one point of last-minute discussion at the regulator (CED Oct 7 p5), commissioners decided not to require cable operators to put information in monthly customer bills on how much CableCARDs would cost if leased separately. The mandate remained largely unchanged in the final order from the original draft circulated by Chairman Julius Genachowski, which he and colleagues said will help promote broadband by paving the way for people without computers to access online content from their TVs.

The FCC will require all operators to give out pricing information about CableCARDs to customers anytime they request it, to post it online where it can easily be accessed and to include it on rate cards, said attorney Brendan Murray of the Media Bureau, which drafted the order. Some of those pricing disclosure requirements will take effect May 1, he told reporters. Commissioner Michael Copps “had hoped we could do even more to provide a line item on cable bills to provide consumers with the pricing information on the CableCARDs,” he told the meeting. “You do not confuse consumers by telling them what they are being charged."

"There is a balancing to be done there -- what we wanted to do was to make sure the information was available to consumers, particularly at the time they make a decision” of whether to lease a set-top box with a CableCARD from an operator or buy their own plug-and-play device, bureau Chief Bill Lake told reporters. “We were concerned” putting such data on billing statements “might not be outweighed” in its benefits to consumers by the complexity that would be required, he added.

The order requires cable operators that don’t now offer a self-installation option for gear they lease to let subscribers by Nov. 1, 2011, install any CableCARD product on their own, without a visit from a technician, Murray said. Companies that already offer self-installation of their own leased gear must do so by Aug. 1 for products bought at retail, he said. Cable companies must let subscribers using third-party consumer electronics devices get all channels they pay for that are transmitted using switched-digital video technology by August as well, Murray said. Certain device output requirements take effect that month, while device functionality requirements are effective in December 2012, he said. He said all other parts of the mandates take effect when notice of the rules appear in the Federal Register with publication of the order, http://xrl.us/bh4mqm.

"Under our existing rules, it’s been more difficult for consumers to use set-top boxes bought at retail than to use boxes leased from the cable operator,” Genachowski said: “As the National Broadband Plan recognized, the current CableCARD approach isn’t working” and “we've been humbled by the experience” in recent years with the cards. “A key element of unleashing innovation through the TV is increased interoperability between a consumer’s pay-TV programming stream and the consumer’s broadband stream of data, so that innovators can design applications that integrate pay-TV programming and other Internet content.” Also as detailed in the broadband plan, “this could be made possible by a gateway device to the consumer’s home,” he said.

"The commission has learned from past failures by adopting a more flexible approach to technical standards and requirements” and by making sure “costly network upgrades are not necessary to support” devices for operators using switched digital video, Commissioner Meredith Baker said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the order incorporates “an improved process for consumers to file complaints if they believe cable companies aren’t doing all we require.” The low cost of the one-way HD set-tops without DVRs the commission is allowing to be used without CableCARDs “should help drive deployment of digital networks more quickly,” Commissioner Robert McDowell said. As a result of “compromise efforts,” the order is “focusing on functionalities, rather than specified standards” for the use of any Internet Protocol connection in two-way HD set-tops, he added. The commission isn’t requiring the one-way boxes to incorporate IP outputs, Murray said.