Verizon Joins ACA, DirecTV, NCTA in Opposing High-Tech Request for Video Device Interoperability Rules
Opposition is building among multichannel video programming distributors to high-technology companies’ renewed request for rules on video device interoperability. Verizon joined the American Cable Association and DirecTV in telling us it, like NCTA (CD Feb 7 p3), opposes recent moves by an alliance that has included heavyweight makers of consumer electronics and Internet companies for an FCC NPRM on the topic. Some told us they're skeptical FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will want to engage in what’s sure to be a contentious proceeding, because of opposition from most MVPDs. They think the agency will continue holding off on moving beyond a previous notice of inquiry on requiring a universal way for CE devices purchased from companies other than MVPDs’ set-top boxes to connect to pay-TV content.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
AllVid backers said they remain optimistic Wheeler will take action where then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski didn’t, because of what they contend are the paltry choices available for video device interoperability. But a slew of pay-TV programmers and MVPDs opposed AllVid rules earlier, and would likely do so again, said NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg. “The commission has bigger fish to fry” than pursuing AllVid, he said. Others cited high-profile and controversial proceedings underway including net neutrality, the incentive auction and IP transition as reasons the agency under Wheeler is unlikely to tackle another tough issue. A Media Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
Verizon sees “no need for the FCC to adopt backward-looking technological mandates on MVPDs,” said the telco, which sells FiOS pay-TV service. “Consumers have many options for accessing programming both from MVPDs and from other video providers without having to use a traditional set-top box. FiOS subscribers, for example, may access our programming via a FiOS TV app on Xboxes, tablets and iPads without having to rent a set-top box from us. The market is continuing to deliver an increasing array of choices for consumers to access the video programming they want, when and where they want it, and on their choice of devices.” AT&T and Dish Network declined to comment. The All-Vid Tech Company Alliance, which last month renewed its request (http://bit.ly/1o28enj) for an NPRM, has included as members Best Buy, Google, Intel, Sony and TiVo.
NCTA CEO Michael Powell wrote Wheeler last week (http://bit.ly/1l89vqm) to urge him to hold off on AllVid rules not because of recent alliance lobbying but because the 2014 CES provided another opportunity to remind the agency that device interoperability is happening voluntarily, said Goldberg in an interview Friday. “There’s nothing that we know that’s going on at the FCC that warrants bringing out the troops here.” NCTA planned the letter before the AllVid lobbying, he said. “I'd like to see, as Chairman Wheeler calls it, let the marketplace seesaw work” in that the balance should be against regulation, said Goldberg. “Take a look at the developments we cite, and the developments as they go on.” Some in the CE industry said they saw Powell’s letter as a defensive move, because there didn’t seem to be much attention to AllVid at the FCC.
Seeing new filings in docket 10-91 (http://bit.ly/LFpQ94) is “some indication that there is something happening” and “interest” among industry on AllVid, said senior staff attorney John Bergmayer of video device interoperability backer Public Knowledge. “If this was just a moribund item, you wouldn’t see” MVPDs and the alliance “wasting their time,” he said. FCC staff working on other high-priority issues aren’t necessarily the same people who would examine implementation of Section 629 of the Telecom Act on interoperability, said Bergmayer. “It’s a new chairman, and new chairmen are able to move new items.” Standardization through rules of video devices “makes a lot of sense,” said Bergmayer. “We're not really seeing an explosion of third-party manufacturers coming in."
CEA sees “no harm in putting out an NPRM,” said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney. “The record in the NOI indicates that there is plenty of interest and data to support it.” A cable lawyer said he could see Wheeler holding a workshop or other event to engage AllVid foes and backers, but doesn’t see the commission doing more, in part because MVPD buy-in would be lacking. Goldberg assumes “everybody who opposed the AllVid folks last time” among MVPDs and suppliers would do so again, he said. “I don’t think we'd have a problem reconstituting that group -- we just don’t have to.”