Comcast CableCARD Order Unlikely to Get FCC Vote by July 1
Commissioners are unlikely to vote anytime soon on Comcast’s CableCARD petition for full FCC review of a Media Bureau order denying the company’s request to combine security and navigation functions in inexpensive set top boxes after July 1, according to several agency and industry officials. It’s all but certain there will be no vote on an order circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to deny Comcast’s petition and uphold the bureau before the integration ban for all cable operators takes effect Sunday, said several FCC officials in other offices. Martin circulated the order earlier this month (CD Jun 11 p1), in time for a vote at today’s (Thursday) FCC meeting in Portland, Maine. But the agenda for the meeting did not include consideration of the CableCARD petition, which was opposed by the Consumer Electronics Association. Meanwhile, another 53 cable operators and Bells including Qwest and Verizon are awaiting bureau action on their petitions.
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The FCC confirmed late Wednesday there will be no action in Portland on another cable and consumer electronics issue, the only item initially placed on the agenda. FCC officials said commissioners will probably vote outside the gathering on a notice of proposed rulemaking soliciting comment on dueling proposals to speed the retail availability of plug and play devices for cable customers. The notice may be voted on before the meeting, even though the FCC removed the item from the meeting agenda, said commission sources. It is unclear if the text of the notice will be released before the meeting, which was combined with a field hearing on how well broadcasters serve communities through news and other shows.
A quick CableCARD vote is unlikely because there were few, if any, negotiations on wording of the order among commissioners and aides, said industry and agency sources. Such discussions typically occur before a vote. Some commissioners did not anticipate action on the item before July 1, said an agency official. Some cable attorneys said they would have preferred action before the integration ban takes effect. As of late Wednesday, the order denying Comcast’s exemption request got votes by only 1 or 2 commissioners, said several agency officials. Martin voted to support the item when he circulated the order, FCC officials have said. It’s unclear if anyone else has voted on the order, either to support it or to block it.
There does not seem to be consensus among commissioners on how to proceed with the order, said several industry officials. Neither exemption opponents nor supporters have made a convincing case to commissioners and their staff, said an industry source. One proponent of integration ban exemptions attributed the lack of commissioner votes to Comcast’s strong case, since 5 other companies already got CableCARD exemptions from the bureau. “I'm not surprised that three commissioners, given those arguments, are reluctant to say they're not entitled to a waiver.” The bureau said Jan. 10 that Comcast failed to show it needed to permanently escape the integration ban in order to sell digital cable on cheaper, set-top boxes that lack CableCARDs. Last Friday, Comcast executives met with Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell in separate gatherings to make the case for an exemption.
Lack of FCC action on Comcast’s petition and pending requests from 53 other video providers for Media Bureau permission to escape the integration ban leave the cable industry in a quandary. Among those awaiting action are RCN and Verizon and a slew of smaller cable operators, with new petitions still coming to the bureau. Comcast estimates complying with the ban will cost several hundred million dollars annually. Starting Sunday, cable operators must buy what they say are more expensive CableCARD set-top boxes from companies including Motorola or risk violating FCC rules. To address the quandary, the bureau may issue a notice exempting cable operators that are awaiting action on petitions, several regulatory lawyers and FCC officials speculated. Regardless, Comcast is prepared to comply with CableCARD rules, said a spokeswoman: “The separable security mandate amounts to an FCC tax of hundreds of millions of dollars on consumers with no additional benefits.”