NCTA fought back in defense of a Satellite Television...

NCTA fought back in defense of a Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799) provision that would repeal the set-top box integration ban. “Public Knowledge has been flooding inboxes calling on their network to take a stand on what they describe as an anti-consumer measure in must-pass video legislation,” said a Monday NCTA blog post (http://bit.ly/1rwikyj), referring to a recent PK campaign. “A closer look shows that Public Knowledge is distorting the impact of this change in spite of the fact that these changes would benefit consumers. The integration ban is an outdated rule which forces cable operators -- and cable operators alone -- to include a separate piece of descrambling equipment known as a CableCARD in the set-top boxes they lease to customers, which adds costs, wastes energy and provides no benefit.” Public Knowledge “appears oblivious to this injustice, perhaps blinded by their seemingly endless desire to criticize the cable industry,” NCTA said. The House approved a similar provision in July. The battle over this STAVRA provision prevented the Senate from approving a Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act proposal earlier this month.