Cablevision TV Encryption Waiver Conditions Sought
A waiver requested by Cablevision to encrypt channels on its all-digital systems in New York City (CD Sept 24 p12) - the first request of its kind -- should be limited in time or have other conditions, several commenters said. Others, including the CEA and Association for Maximum Service Television, opposed a waiver outright because it would require subscribers to use set-top boxes or CableCARDs to receive TV channels. Commenters, and communications lawyers not involved in the proceeding, called Cablevision’s request unique, though others could follow as the cable industry goes all-digital.
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The cable operator fashioned its request in part as a bid to help the environment by reducing the number of technician visits to subscriber homes, a theme touched on in some of Thursday’s comments. The waiver request, if approved, would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the cable operator said in its request this summer. It will “eliminate costly and unfriendly truck rolls,” RCN said last week, supporting the request. Exemption from 76.760(a) of commission rules also would “avoid the potential for theft of cable service and provide improved intellectual property protection for digital and HD content,” said RCN, set to be all-digital by year-end. “Fewer home visits also mean less traffic on our already congested New York streets,” said the Hispanic Federation, the National Puerto Rican Coalition and two other groups.
The FCC should limit any waiver to three years, said New York City. It took no position on approval of the waiver. “Such proposed condition arises from the technology-dependent nature of Cablevision’s assertion in its petition that” consumers won’t be harmed, the city added. Standard TV equipment may in the future be able to get digital cable signals, making moot the need to encrypt the programming, it said.
Letting Cablevision encrypt channels on its basic tier “would mean taking away a vital low-cost option for consumers -- the ability to receive basic programming without a set-top box or CableCARD rental,” the CEA said. “The ability to connect consumer equipment directly to cable remains the simplest, most straightforward way of receiving basic cable programming.” Encrypting programming would mean consumers with QAM tuners would need to buy or rent a set-top box or CableCARD, MSTV said. “Likewise, a waiver would harm the many subscribers who now rely on personal computers to receive unencrypted digital cable service.”
“While Cablevision is the first major cable system to apply for such a waiver, it certainly will not be the last,” the Media Access Project and Public Knowledge said in a joint filing. “This petition marks only the beginning.” If Cablevision reduces the cost of its move to subscribers by providing them with free set-top boxes for some period of time and ensuring DVRs and other devices without CableCARDs will work via analog outputs, the commission should grant the waiver, they said. The FCC should quickly move to a general rulemaking, because many more waiver requests may follow, Legal Director Harold Feld of Public Knowledge told us. “We expect the ‘cable digital conversion’ to be as much of an industrywide shift as the shift to digital television.”