FCC Likely to Approve Cable Encryption Within a Few Months, With Some Curbs
Career FCC staff is working out details of rules allowing scrambling basic cable programming (CD Nov 30 p10). That would let cable operators cut down on the need to send out technicians and their energy-consuming, carbon-dioxide-emitting vehicles to turn on and off service. Media Bureau staffers have been devoting attention in recent weeks to work toward a draft order that will allow encryption of the basic tier, agency and industry officials said. They said the order may be one of the next major media decisions released by the commission.
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The bureau appears likely to adopt some conditions so that operators must offer free set-top boxes or other consumer electronics to subscribers who used to be able to use older TV sets or certain CE gear to get unencrypted broadcast and basic-cable shows in analog, industry officials said. The rulemaking notice on encryption proposed a range of requirements similar to those Cablevision faced in a 2010 waiver for any cable operators that go all-digital and want to scramble the basic tier. The company had to offer existing basic-only subscribers up to two free set-top boxes or CableCARDs for as long as two years, customers with extra sets one box free for a year and new, low-income subscribers to basic tier up to two boxes for five years.
Similar conditions will likely be included in the version Chairman Julius Genachowski would then circulate for a vote, industry officials said. Cablevision, Comcast and RCN, which has a waiver request pending, are among those cable operators whose executives have visited the commission recently to lobby for encryption (CD Jan 24 p15). Some of those companies touted the C02 reduction benefits of encryption, since it cuts down on truck rolls because video can be activated and deactivated remotely by operators. The CEA and some CE makers and retailers recently expressed concerns about encryption, according to filings in docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmps63).
Backers of AllVid rules that would require all pay-TV companies to connect to consumer electronics without a CableCARD have sought a conclusion of that rulemaking before encryption is approved. But that seems unlikely to happen, because the encryption order will probably be finished and approved by the commission before it acts on AllVid, industry officials said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
CE companies used their time at the CES earlier this month to press their case, meeting with bureau officials during the show in Las Vegas. The CEA and companies including Best Buy, Boxee, Google and Hauppauge Digital were represented at the meeting. Boxee and Hauppauge executives said their companies “have made significant investments in past, present, and future products that rely on ‘clear QAM'” digital cable encoding “for their functionality,” according to an ex parte filing by the association (http://xrl.us/bmps7m). “Their companies and their customers would be harmed by the actions proposed by the Commission.” Encryption would mean devices like Boxee wouldn’t work without set-tops or other gear. All the companies asked the commission to “promote interoperability between nationally distributed consumer electronics products and cable systems, taking advantage of private sector IP-based standards,” the filing said.
Encryption holds a “promise” for “substantial” savings in “environmental, fuel, and time” terms “from a no-truck roll policy more broadly implemented” by Cablevision, the operator reported (http://xrl.us/bmptdd) executives told a front-office bureau staffer. “In July 2011, Cablevision implemented operational changes in part of its encrypted, New York City footprint, comprising about 400,000 households. Since then, more than 99 percent of all disconnects have been performed without a truck roll. This has resulted in the elimination of tens of thousands of truck rolls already in that area.” Cablevision got FCC approval for encryption in the city, and has systems in other parts of the market and in the Western U.S.
RCN pointed to consumer benefits from encryption, since customers don’t have to wait for a technician to visit to get service. “Remote provisioning eliminates wait times and ’service windows’ -- even for customers who have to receive a new set-top box for the first time,” the company reported (http://xrl.us/bmps8p) executives told Chief Bill Lake and other bureau officials. “Because RCN can remotely provision service changes and upgrades, it can allow customers to receive their physical hardware (i.e., the set-top box or CableCARD) in the mail or by visiting an RCN office. RCN’s customers much prefer this to having to wait at home for a service appointment.”