NCTA, Major MSOs Claim Success for CableCARD Deployment
The 6 largest MSOs deployed nearly 60,000 CableCARDs in the 14 months to mid-Sept., NCTA said in a report filed Mon. at the FCC on behalf of Adelphia, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable.
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The long-awaited report, required by the FCC to answer CEA complaints that cable has supported CableCARD deployment only halfheartedly, said adding the next 4 largest companies brings CableCARD deployment to 67,000. The 10 MSOs have 88% of cable subscribers. The 67,000 deployed are a far cry from CEA’s original estimate that a million would be needed by year-end 2004 to satisfy demand for CableCARD-ready DTV sets. But NCTA said the “large number” of CableCARDs and devices deployed “speaks to the success of this technology.” CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro declined to comment on the report, saying CEA was still reviewing it. But in recent months CEA has praised cable’s “good faith” efforts to iron out CableCARD compatibility and installation problems, and in its report NCTA cited those conciliatory statements as evidence of how well the program was doing.
NCTA conceded that, as with any new technology, problems have abounded with CableCARD. There are 363 “certified or verified” models of CableCARD-ready DTVs from 22 manufacturers, NCTA said, creating challenges as operators strive to make CableCARDs work “seamlessly” with all TV sets. Companies have assigned internal teams to work on the problems, and NCTA and CableLabs have held weekly conference calls with MSO engineering to troubleshoot compatibility issues.
NCTA’s report also said the specifications for multistream CableCARDs are complete. The M-card will be backward-compatible with single-steam devices and is expected to be widely available commercially by mid-2006, NCTA said. The HPNxPro multistream test tool prototype will be submitted to CableLabs this month and will likely be “officially validated” for use by mid-2006, NCTA said. “Pre-qualified” samples of the M-card will be sent to CableLabs this quarter for preliminary testing, the report said. The reported didn’t mention progress on bidirectional CableCARDs. That’s fodder for a separate joint report from CEA and NCTA, the deadline on which has been pushed back to Oct. 14.
Attachments to the NCTA report from each of the 6 MSOs provide varying detail about CableCARD deployment and installation problems. Typically, the MSOs said 100% of the installations have been performed through “truck rolls,” and that had been a major bone of contention with CE executives who have said the program won’t truly be successful until consumers have the choice of installing the cards themselves. Since all the MSOs reported it usually takes more than one visit to address CableCARD issues, cable was likely to argue that the truck rolls were well justified. The MSOs charge only a nominal monthly fee for CableCARDs -- typically about $1-$2 -- plus one-time installation fees averaging about $30-$40. In the case of Adelphia, the installation fee is “typically waived,” the MSO said.
Adelphia also provided the most extensive detail among the 6 about how CableCARD problems are addressed or resolved. Problems that can’t be resolved at the local level are bumped up to Adelphia’s “24x7 Video Operations Group,” the MSO said. The group monitors the latest CableCARD service updates and troubleshooting data to provide local systems “with the information they'll need to complete a CableCARD installation,” Adelphia said. Such issues were bounced up to the group 67 times in Aug. Some are resolved but many remain “open.”