CableCARD Consumer Support Rules, MVPD Navigation Device Proposal Ended

The FCC closed the door on a proceeding about whether to require MVPDs to provide unbundled flows of programming information to those who want to make new navigation devices, in a docket 16-42 order Friday. The order also axed the CableCARD consumer support rules and requirement that big cable operators report such deployments. Democratic commissioners concurred but didn't issue statements. The commission said there are "serious and unresolved" issues on copyright and multichannel video programming security in its navigation device rules proposal, and the CableCARD consumer support rules "no longer serve a useful purpose." The regulator began requiring cable to report CableCARD deployments in 2005 to answer consumer tech industry complaints that cable operators were backing CableCARDs only halfheartedly (see 0510050137).