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The FCC has been unsuccessful in spurring competition in the set-top box market since Congress passed a law requiring changes in 1996. The current situation is exactly why we don't see some of our favorite companies making cable compatible devices -- remember when just about every electronics company made a VCR? CableCARD is a failure because, among other reasons, it is expensive to implement and requires the customer give up certain aspects of their service, like video-on-demand and guide data; on top of that it is a cable only solution and some people prefer satellite TV. And so after giving the market all this time to work out a solution, the FCC issued an Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in an attempt to devise a new mandate that would make give you as many options for a DVR as you have for something like a smart phone. An NOI is just one of the first of many steps on the way to new rules, but the comments do give us a great picture of where each party stands.

Two sides are clearly forming with Sony, TiVo and the Consumer Electronics Association leading up one side and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), its members, and satellite providers on the other. To sum it up the consumer electronics companies make suggestions for an IP video gateway nick named AllVid, which they hope will bring consumers choice in both hardware and software without having to change providers or sacrifice features. And on the other side, they believe that things are just great the way they are and that innovation is happening. They go on to describe how the plans in the NOI will not only fail to spur innovation, but will actually be detrimental to providers and consumers. Then just for good measure, they explain why the FCC doesn't even have the authority to mandate such things.

The entire thing is an interesting perspective into how the Executive Branch of our government works, and while it'll be some time before we are impacted by the outcome, we went ahead and laid out the highlights of a number of the comments after the break so you can play FCC commissioner at home.

Continue reading Sony, TiVo, NCTA and others chime in on CableCARD's replacement

Sony, TiVo, NCTA and others chime in on CableCARD's replacement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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