No AllVid NPRM Push Yet Within FCC, After Some Accord At Stakeholder Meeting
There’s not much of a push yet within the FCC for an AllVid rulemaking that consumer electronics makers have sought to move the industry closer to a requirement that all pay-TV companies connect to CE devices without CableCARDs, agency officials said Wednesday. They said few at the commission seem to be trying to ratchet up the pressure on Chairman Julius Genachowski to issue a rulemaking notice. That could change after a closed-door stakeholder meeting organized by the Media Bureau was held in the commission meeting room last Wednesday, agency officials watching the AllVid proceeding said.
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Both major telcos, the top DBS company and the largest two cable operators and companies ranging from Google to Intel were represented at the meeting. It was called as the bureau has effectively paused the proceeding. The NCTA’s seven device interoperability proposals and one from an AllVid coalition were discussed at the meeting, according to an ex parte filing by bureau Chief Bill Lake and interviews with attendees. “Multichannel video programming distributors asserted that market forces have led to and continue to drive a competitive retail market for devices that can access their services, whereas those representing consumer electronics manufacturers, retailers, and consumer groups asserted that standards-based regulation is necessary to realize a competitive market for such devices,” Lake wrote.
The meeting found some accord on some issues among MVPDs and programmers, who are opposing AllVid rules, and proponents in the CE industry, some attendees from all those industries said. They said both sides like the types of deals that MVPDs like Comcast are doing with CE manufacturers for pay-TV and Internet content to appear on TV sets, gaming consoles and other devices. (See separate report in this issue.) The disagreement continues to center on whether regulations are needed to ensure that industry standards are incorporated by all MVPDs, CE and cable officials said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
"Everybody there thought it was a worthwhile exercise,” attendee Neal Goldberg, general counsel of the NCTA, said: “And at least the cable side would be willing to do it in six months to show that things are moving at a worthwhile pace” with more deals happening such as the one announced Wednesday between Comcast and Microsoft. There “was common ground” at the gathering, in that some speakers “did not say regulation was necessary” to achieve the type of device integration that CE makers, retailers and MVPDs hope for, Goldberg said. “They said the marketplace is moving and they hope it keeps moving at an even faster pace.” The CEA believes “now is a perfect time to get the NPRM out and continue this discussion,” Vice President Julie Kearney said of the rulemaking that the association and allies want the commission to vote on.
It’s telling that the AllVid rule proposal from the CE industry filed with the commission last month “did not in and of itself engender very much controversy,” said CE lawyer Robert Schwartz of Constantine Cannon. He represents the AllVid Tech Company Coalition, which made the filing and represents Best Buy, Google, Intel, Mitsubishi, Nagravision, RadioShack, Sony and TiVo. Schwartz said the Digital Living Network Alliance home networking standards that AllVid rule proponents think should be part of the technical basis for regulations were talked up at the meeting by Comcast/NBCUniversal Washington President Kyle McSlarrow, who wrote NCTA’s seven principles.
"There seemed to be a consensus that at least wired MVPDs are moving toward IP distribution,” Schwartz said of pay-TV companies sending more video using Internet Protocol. “We acknowledge that people may have either specific concerns about what’s proposed and they do have longstanding policy concerns, but the place to ventilate them further is in the context of an NPRM now that we've put all the tools and how they'd be used onto the table,” Schwartz said. “The two sides of that debate have been very adequately ventilated in filings with the commission, and it’s now time for on-the-record public comment in the context of a rulemaking."
Not so, said NCTA. The deals that continue to be unveiled show integration is becoming reality without rules, an association spokesman said. “There’s been more progress in the marketplace to show that consumers are having more options to have more content on different devices,” he said. “The common ground is being exhibited in the marketplace, which is all of the dozens of deals that have been announced as recently as today.” Among companies at the meeting, attended by aides to three commissioners, were AT&T and Verizon, DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Time Warner Inc. and Viacom and the MPAA.