CBS Listen to Revised Set-Top Plan

CBS executives listened to a discussion in conference calls last week of a revised app-based set-top approach “at the invitation of the [FCC] Chairman’s office,” said an ex parte filing. The apps involved would be designed and controlled by pay-TV carriers and “would help ensure that our valuable content and services remain inside of, and under the control of, [multichannel video programming distributors] with whom we have a direct contractual relationship for the distribution of our product,” said the CBS filing on the Wednesday and Thursday calls. The discussed proposal has technical issues in the delivery of viewer measurement data, and the system should use a license that has been drafted “exclusively” by MVPDs and programmers, the filing said. “We expressed support for the approach that provides that programming at all times remain inside of an MVPD-controlled app and that honors the sanctity of our contracts and content rights,” CBS said.