Basic Channel Encryption Proposed in FCC Draft for Cable Operators
Cable operators could encrypt all channels in their basic lineups on all-digital systems if they take steps to give customers the equipment they'd need to get the programming, under a draft FCC proposal. The Media Bureau rulemaking notice on cable encryption is meant to supplant a waiver process, commission and industry officials said Friday. They said it has not been voted on by all FCC members yet, but that approval ought to be noncontroversial.
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The draft notice proposes an industrywide rule for operators to make a showing to the commission about how all subscribers will continue to get access to all channels after encryption, FCC officials said. The document asks what operators must do to ensure that those consumers with older TVs can continue to get service, an agency official said. Agency officials said the proposals are seen within the commission as relatively straightforward. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
Cablevision and some smaller operators had gotten waivers of the ban on such encryption, and several more requests from smaller operators are pending at the agency. They include one that RCN filed in August (CD Aug 17 p4) and another from a company with about 3,000 video subscribers two weeks before the rulemaking notice circulated. The lawyer who sought that waiver for Mikrotec and filed one in March for another small operator, Inter Mountain Cable, said he hopes those requests will be granted. But the agency often freezes consideration of such waivers while there’s a rulemaking pending, said the attorney, Tom Dougherty of Fletcher Heald.
Major cable operators have expressed interest in such encryption, because much of the industry is looking to go all-digital, commission and industry officials said. “Amending the basic tier encryption rule will speed cable’s transition to an all-digital platform, promoting continued innovation and investment in cable networks, which is both pro-consumer and a great opportunity to strike an outdated rule in a highly competitive marketplace,” an NCTA spokesman said. “Encryption of the basic tier would allow cable operators to remotely activate and deactivate service without the need for a service call, improving the consumer experience and providing significant environmental benefits by reducing truck rolls."
"Some of the big boys have been over there to talk about it,” Dougherty said of major operators going to the commission, where officials said the issue has been discussed in general and no specific waivers came up. “Everybody would like to scramble all-digital services."
The Cablevision waiver from January 2010 is put forth as a model of sorts in the draft rulemaking, FCC and cable-industry officials said. To get the bureau waiver (CD Jan 11/10 p10) to encrypt the signals of its New York City system, the cable operator agreed to provide set-top boxes or CableCARDs to customers owning older TVs that couldn’t get the digital signals because they weren’t cable-ready. The rulemaking notice proposes that cable operators with all-digital systems take similar steps for their subscribers, agency and industry officials said. Cablevision spokespeople had no comment.
Two nonprofit groups had sought a rulemaking on the waivers in 2009, when Cablevision requested one. The rulemaking they sought then is essentially what’s set to be issued soon, agency and industry officials said. “It would be nice, now that the commission is starting to act on this issue, if they moved forward on a lot of proceedings that they've had pending for a long time as well” including AllVid rules for all pay-TV companies to connect to video devices without CableCARDs, said attorney John Bergmayer of Public Knowledge. AllVid is “just sort of hanging out there, it’s really not clear how they intend to proceed” on a rulemaking notice that the group and CEA have asked the commission to issue, he added.
Public Knowledge likely would support the encryption proposal, from what Bergmayer has heard of it, he said. He hasn’t seen a draft. His group and the Media Access Project had called for a rulemaking two years ago. “If that is indeed the case, that’s pretty much all we asked for” in terms of making customers with older TVs whole after encryption, he said. “It’s a good thing that the commission would update its rules, rather than proceeding by waiver.” The “advantages of going to all-digital for cable systems” and being able to do encryption are alright, as long as the companies are “also making sure unanticipated costs aren’t borne by consumers,” Bergmayer said.