FCC Formally Kills Rules That Would Have Brought Competition To The Cable Box

from the competition-schmompetition dept

In early 2016, the cable industry quietly launched one of the most misleading and successful lobbying efforts in the industry's history. The target? A plan concocted by the former FCC that would have let customers watch cable TV lineups on third-party hardware. Given the industry makes $21 billion annually in rental fees thanks to its cable box hardware monopoly, the industry got right to work with an absolute wave of disinformation, claiming that the FCC's plan would put consumer data at risk, result in a "piracy apocalypse," and was somehow even racist (it wasn't).

At one point, the industry even managed to grab the help of the US Copyright Office, which falsely claimed that more cable box competition would somehow violate copyright. Of course the plan had nothing to do with copyright, and everything to do with control, exemplifying once again that for the US Copyright Office, public welfare can often be a distant afterthought.

Once in office, the Pai FCC dutifully got to work dismantling the Wheeler-era FCC proposal, coordinated with and justified by cable providers which promised their own "free market alternatives" would make the proposal irrelevant. More specifically, they promised that you'd be able to order Comcast or Spectrum's cable lineup through an app, making cable boxes irrelevant. But this promised alternative never showed up:

"Last June, Big Cable made an appealing offer for viewers and regulators. Companies would provide consumers with free apps to watch TV rather than making them pay monthly fees for cable boxes. But the cable companies didn’t do this out of the kindness of their hearts — they wanted to stop the Federal Communication Commission from passing regulations making them ship apps.

A year after that “Ditch the Box” pledge, two things have changed. There’s now zero threat of federal regulators requiring cable operators to give subscribers free apps to replace rented boxes, and the industry’s “Ditch the Box” plan seems to have disappeared."

Funny how that works. This week the FCC put the finishing touches on scuttling the proposal, while also eliminating the need for cable providers to support CableCARD, technology that lets you avoid buying a traditional cable provider cable box, and instead using hardware like TiVo. It's a tech the industry always under-supported because it took revenue away from cable box rentals. And now that too is largely dead, buried under (false) claims it was no longer necessary because streaming is now so gosh darn competitive:

"In explaining why it killed off Wheeler’s plan for good last week, the FCC largely regurgitated cable industry talking points. The agency said it had “serious and unresolved concerns” about security and copyright protection (concerns that consumer advocacy groups have disputed), and reiterated the same argument it used against CableCARD: Customers already have the ability to watch cable programming on their streaming devices, so there’s no need for more regulatory intervention."

While it's true that streaming providers have brought some helpful competition to the sector, much of the content is still owned by consolidated telecom/cable/media giants like AT&T Time Warner and Comcast NBC Universal. And while they're very slowly losing their dominance thanks to cord cutters, these gatekeepers have enough power that they're still doing everything in their power to lock you inside their walled gardens, tracked by their data tracking systems, using clunky old cable boxes if you want the "best experience":

"Sure, if you’re a Comcast subscriber, you can use the Xfinity Stream app in place of a cable box on Roku devices, Samsung TVs, and LG TVs. But that same app isn’t available on other streaming platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, or Chromecast. A report last year by BestAppleTV claimed that Comcast is more interested in building up its own X1 platform than supporting more third-party alternatives such as Apple TV, and while Comcast disputed the story, it hasn’t launched any new streaming apps in more than a year.

Likewise, if you’re getting TV service through Spectrum, you can use the Spectrum app on Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TVs, and Xbox One consoles, but not on Fire TV, Android TV, or Chromecast. Meanwhile, Dish Network only offers live TV and DVR on Amazon Fire TV devices."

The ideal solution to this problem continues to be to vote with your wallet and cut the cord. But for those who can't do so (due to a desire to watch live sports, or lack of a fast, uncapped broadband line for streaming), you're still going to find yourself stuck, more often than not, renting a dated, crappy, expensive, locked-down cable box. And with the FCC's help, the cable industry continues to work overtime to ensure that's the most expensive proposition possible, charging you major monthly fees to use their cheap, clunky, proprietary, locked-down hardware.

Filed Under: 3rd party, cable box, cablecard, competition, fcc, fees

Cable Industry Quietly Shelves Its Bogus Plan To Make Cable Boxes Cheaper, More Competitive

from the misbehaving-without-a-baby-sitter dept

Last year, the cable industry quietly launched one of the most misleading and successful lobbying efforts in the industry's history. The target? A plan concocted by the former FCC that would have let customers watch cable programming without having to rent a cable box or use a CableCARD. Given the industry makes $21 billion annually in rental fees off of this entrenched hardware monopoly, the industry got right to work with an absolute wave of disinformation, claiming that the FCC's plan would confuse customers, increase piracy, and was (with a little help from Jesse Jackson) somehow even racist (seriously).

At one point, the industry even managed to grab the help of the US Copyright Office, which falsely claimed that more cable box competition would somehow violate copyright. Of course the plan had nothing to do with copyright, and everything to do with control, exemplifying once again that for the US Copyright Office, public welfare is often a distant afterthought.

As part of this stage show, the cable industry also created a group specifically tasked with attacking the proposal. Dubbed the Future of TV Coalition, the group set forth to not only attack the FCC's plan, but to propose its own counter proposal it claimed made any cable box reform efforts at the FCC unnecessary. Dubbed the "ditch the box" proposal, the cable industry and the Future of TV Coalition breathlessly stated the industry (pdf) was already cooking up ways to help consumers avoid rental fees have greater choice, and that these efforts were already well underway:

"This new “Ditch the Box” approach calls for binding, enforceable obligations for major TV providers to allow customers to ditch their set-top boxes and access live and on demand programming via boxless apps compatible with a wide range of retail devices, including smart TVs, game consoles, streaming devices, laptops, tablets, phones, and more...Providers will have two years to fully implement the new requirements – and many are already racing to do so sooner."

That was then, this is now. Shortly after Trump's election win, the new Ajit Pai led FCC quickly moved to scuttle the plan. And not too surprisingly, the cable industry's counter plan to make lives better for consumers never actually materialized, and appears to have been mothballed:

"The Future of TV Coalition has gone silent — it last tweeted Nov. 28 — the cable industry’s trade group NCTA hasn’t had much to say about it either. NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz wrote in an e-mail that Ditch the Box was pitched as “an “alternative” to the Wheeler’s original proposal. Without the FCC’s acceptance of Ditch the Box, that plan got ditched."

So without somebody actively pressuring an uncompetitive sector to stop being uncompetitive, they continue to be uncompetitive. Who could have possibly predicted that? Of course the cable industry continues to pay empty lip service to the idea of choice and freedom, all the while continuing efforts to make actual consumer choice on this front as difficult and expensive as ever (see Comcast's decision to charge users a completely unnecessary fee just to use a Roku as a cable box, or cross-industry efforts to use unnecessary broadband usage caps and overage fees to drive up the cost of streaming via their competitors).

The cable industry falsely believes this is all an ingenious plan to keep its traditional cable TV cash cow alive indefinitely. But as the continued and accelerating rate of TV cord cutting illustrates, the cable sector isn't going to be nearly as impervious to market evolution as it likes to believe.

Filed Under: cable box, cable card, cable tv, competition, ditch the box, fcc, lies, set top boxes, unlock the box
Companies: ncta

Jesse Jackson Likens FCC Cable Box Reform Plan To 'Snarling Dogs, Water Hoses And Church Bombings'

from the sock-puppetry dept

Back in February the FCC voted to open up the captive cable set top box market to competition, potentially opening the door to better, cheaper hardware, but also putting an end to the $21 billion the cable industry makes annually in set top box rental fees. Shortly thereafter the cable industry responded by pushing an absolute torrent of misleading editorials in newspapers and in websites nationwide. Some of these editorials claim set top box competition will result in privacy, security, or piracy Armageddon. Most try to claim set top box competition is some kind of nefarious plan by Google to freeload on cable's "amazing history of innovation."

But the most obnoxious of these editorials have been those trying to claim that the FCC's set top box reform plan will hurt minority communities and diversity. We've long noted how one of the cable industry's favorite lobbying tricks is throwing money at minority groups so they'll parrot bad telecom policy, whether that's supporting the latest merger or opposing net neutrality. In short, many such groups are willing to support policies that actively harm their constituents -- for just the right amount of cash.

Enter Jesse Jackson, who this week penned an Op-ed over at USAToday that right out of the gate starts off on unsteady footing by mentioning the FCC's set top box reform plan in the same breath as "snarling dogs, water hoses and church bombings in the American South":

"National news coverage of the snarling dogs, water hoses and church bombings in the American South were the catalysts to exposing the ugly truths of racism and bigotry in the 1960s. Local news outlets gave new meaning to what the struggle looked like for people on its front lines. That is why a new proposal at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate TV “set top boxes" has raised so much concern."

Wait, what? Because history is filled with racism means the FCC's plan to open up the cable set top box market to competition raises concern? If you've actually bothered to read the FCC's proposal (pdf), all the rules would do would require cable companies to take their existing programming -- and make it available to third party hardware using the delivery methods and copy protection of the industry's choice. If anything the move would result in consumers getting access to more diverse programming options than ever before, given it would eliminate the traditional cable box walled garden, and replace it with hardware that nudges consumers in the direction of an ocean of streaming content.

Just like the cable industry (surely coincidental, right?), Jackson tries to claim that the FCC plan would let hardware vendors obtain cable programming "without any compensation":

"Essentially, the FCC is proposing that small and diverse television programmers such as Revolt and Vme TV hand over their television content to third party device manufacturers without any compensation. These companies could then pull networks apart, ignore copyright protections and dismantle the local and national advertising streams that have traditionally supported high quality, multicultural content."

Again though, that's not true. Cable customers will still pay cable companies the same high rates for the exact same content lineups using the exact same copy protection, users will just be able to access it via a wider variety of hardware. That's much like how third party hardware (like TiVO) work now, except without the costly and cumbersome CableCARD installation. Jackson (or what ever cable lobbyist ghost writer rented his name for the afternoon) preaches on -- pretending he's engaged in a brave civil rights battle:

"Diversity on television and media still matters as much as it did in the 1960s. While new video platforms and content are being developed, the promise of this new medium will not be an immediate substitute for the current range of images and voices now available on TV. Furthermore, the market is already demonstrating its own agility to change with many new devices, streaming options and services bringing traditional television and Internet video onto our screens seamlessly.

Fighting for diversity in programming and media ownership is one thing. Opposing a plan that would actually help diverse communities by making cable cheaper while delivering more diverse content than ever before is something else entirely. Jackson tries to support his shaky position by rattling off a laundry list of politicians and minority groups that oppose the FCC's plan:

"Leaders of the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses have voiced opposition to this proposal; to date, over 80 House Democrats have expressed opposition or serious concerns. Major civil rights organizations, such as the National Urban League and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), have asked the FCC to pause this proceeding until more empirical data detailing the impacts on diversity is released."

And while it's possible a few members of these groups actually believe (or are mislead to believe) the FCC's plan hurts diversity, all Jackson's laundry list of such groups does is highlight just how pervasive this kind of lobbyist dreck has become. Most consumers frankly have no idea that "astroturf" of this type even exists, and as a result many will be convinced that a plan that actually helps them will do them harm thanks to Jackson's missive. Comcast has found this kind of sock puppetry so effective, it now calls its top lobbyist David Cohen the company's "Chief Diversity Officer."

And while this really is nothing short of disinformation, it speaks volumes about the quality of the cable industry's argument -- and its fear of set real top box competition -- that it needs to resort to grotesque, misleading puppetry of this type.

Filed Under: cable box, competition, copyright, diversity, fcc, fud, jesse jackson, open technology, set top boxes
Companies: comcast