Set-top Proceeding Foes Jump on Comcast TVE Plans as Evidence
Comcast's announced plans to expand its TV Everywhere offerings had numerous critics of the FCC set-top box proposal pointing to those plans Wednesday as proof the agency is headed in the wrong regulatory direction. The FCC is "rushing forward with a regulatory proceeding that will upset a marketplace that is undergoing such a dramatic transformation and achieving the goals that it seeks [and] should study these developments and reconsider the path it appears to be on," NCTA said in a statement.
The FCC, meanwhile, said the details of the Comcast announcement aren't totally clear: "It appears to offer only a proprietary, Comcast-controlled user interface and seems to allow only Comcast content on different devices, rather than allowing those devices to integrate or search across Comcast content as well as other content consumers subscribe to.”
The TVE expansion involves Comcast's new Xfinity TV Partner Program, through which device makers can create products that work with the TV Partner app, the cable company said. Samsung is the first TV maker to sign up, with the app to be implemented on its smart TVs, Comcast said in a news release. In a separate announcement, Comcast said an Xfinity TV Partner app for Roku TVs and streaming players would be available later this year.
Comcast used the announcements as a springboard for railing against the set-top proposal. In a blog post, Mark Hess, Comcast senior vice president-business and industry affairs, said that because of the growth of the TVE app market, "the far-reaching government technical mandate being currently proposed by the FCC is unnecessary." Hess said that the agency "threatens to undermine this highly-dynamic marketplace, create substantial costs and consumer harms, and [the plan] will take years to develop -- only to be likely outdated by the time it reaches the marketplace -- all in an effort to achieve what apps are already delivering for consumers."
The Future of TV Coalition also pointed to Comcast's TVE plans when it said in a statement, "If the FCC’s set-top box proceeding is truly just about freeing consumers from monthly box fees, today’s announcement underscores how absurd the arguments for government intervention are. Apps, not federal box mandates, are the fastest and most effective way to expand consumers’ options for video devices." The coalition also said the proposed rules "would take years to develop and implement new, mandated technology standards. The marketplace is already racing to meet consumer demand far faster, with app-based solutions that won’t undermine consumer privacy, reduce programming diversity, or increase consumer costs."
Meanwhile, the Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) released survey results Wednesday that it said showed Americans are "concerned about the potential intrusion on their privacy and whether companies will start collecting information on their children." DCA, for example, presented those being surveyed the statement, "If Google enters into the set top box business, it will be able to not only collect information about what you watch but also what your children are interested in." According to DCA, 62 percent of those surveyed said they were uncomfortable with such a scenario. The April 13-14 survey was of 685 people, done by Vrge Analytics, DCA said.
The American Cable Association and NCTA are scheduled Thursday to hold media events discussing their stances on the set-top proposal. NCTA said Wednesday that it plans to submit an analysis, "The Scary Economics of the NPRM’s Navigation Device Rules,” in its FCC comments to be filed Friday. The paper, by former FCC Chief Economist Steve Wildman, concludes the proposed rules likely will distort competition in a way that harms consumers because device suppliers -- armed with the right to sell advertising access to viewers -- will divert revenue streams from multichannel video programming distributors, leading to cheaper and often less appealing programming, NCTA said. Wildman is a Quello Center senior fellow at Michigan State University.
John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, which has supported the FCC set-top proposal, told us in an email, "I don't think Comcast's announcement changes the reality for consumers." He also said the public interest group plans to file comments Friday explaining "how only the FCC's proposal will truly bring about a competitive no-box world."