TiVo, Saying NCTA et al. Raise 'Non-Issues,' Seeks FCC DSTAC NPRM

Calling objections to an alternative to the pay-TV "gatekeeper model" for consumers to be able to choose independent user interfaces joining linear and over-the-top TV "non-issues," TiVo told aides to all FCC members there's no reason to delay issuing an NPRM on the agency's Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) report. "Any remaining concerns can be addressed as part of a rulemaking proceeding, and are not reasons for the Commission to delay" the NPRM, TiVo General Counsel Matt Zinn and outside lawyers for the company said, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 15-64. "Despite some recent revisionist history being put forth by opponents of competition, Section 629 has always been about extending the principle of Carterfone to the video navigation devices market and giving consumers a choice among retail products for the consumer interface," it said of the Communications Act section on a retail market for video navigation devices. An NPRM on the DSTAC report may soon circulate (see 1512150072). NCTA pushed back against TiVo. Despite the company's comparison of Section 629 to Carterfone, "the FCC has repeatedly found that the telephone network does not provide a proper analogy for video," NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg responded by email. "From the beginning of its work implementing Section 629 in 1998, it said that ‘the telephone networks do not provide a proper analogy to the issues in this [video device] proceeding due to the numerous differences in technology between Part 68 telephone networks and MVPD networks.’ It reiterated that conclusion in 2010.”