Is box relief on the way for cable & satellite customers?
If FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has his way, cable and satellite TV viewers may soon be getting around monthly cable box rental fees.
Can you hear the teeth gnashing at Comcast, Verizon FiOS and Time Warner Cable headquarters today? At Dish and DirecTV too?
Set-top cable box rentals – a major profit center for cable and satellite TV companies – may finally be going the way of "Ma Bell's" compulsory phone rentals (remember them?) if Federal Communications Commissioner Thomas Wheeler's proposal to "unlock the box" wins favor from his fellow commissioners.
Wheeler is circulating a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" that would tear down anti-competitive barriers, pave the way for software, devices and other innovative solutions to compete with the set top boxes that a majority of consumers now lease.
Unlike today's FCC-mandated set-top box alternative "solution" - a workaround that requires users to rent (from the cable company) and install a "Cable Card" in their alternately sourced receiver (like a TiVo) - the new scheme would use a software-driven app or interface. It could be installed on a smart TV, tablet or alternate set-top box (like a Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV) and could theoretically be upgraded as new features are added.
The interface would enable both two-way communications (not possible with Cable Card) for advanced guide and pay-per-view access. It would also make possible recording on the purchased (not rented) device – the DVR functionality which now costs customers several more dollars, per month, over and above the box rental.
Wheeler's proposal also opens the doors for independent makers of receiver boxes and apps to mash up the cable/satellite programming supplier's channels with content and information from internet TV sources. So "over the top" web services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Sling TV would pop up in integrated fashion on the same guide with your offerings from Comcast, FiOS, et al.
TV set makers like LG, Samsung and Sony are already inching in this direction with new models that place cable/satellite and web-based services side-by-side on a banner guide, making any and all accessible with "a single button push and no change of inputs," touted LG exec John Taylor.
Today, the average rental charge for a set-top box is $7.43 per month, calculates the FCC. That's "an increase of 185 percent since 1994 and more than three times the increase in the Consumer Price Index in the same period. "
Wheeler's box-bashing proposal comes to a full FCC vote on February 18.