The FCC says that the CableCARD regime should have opened up a new era of competition and innovation in the set-top box market – but it never has gotten that result. So as a result, it issued a new set of measures that it hopes will open things up, and help foster broadband adoption in the process.
Four items were addressed: “(1) ensuring that retail devices have access to all video programming that is prescheduled by the programming provider; (2) making CableCARD pricing and billing more transparent; (3) streamlining CableCARD installations; and (4) streamlining requirements for manufacturers who build CableCARD devices.”
The FCC said there were also additional tweaks to the rules to “…encourage consumers to connect their cable boxes to home networks and to ease the regulatory burdens on cable operators that are modernizing their systems.”
