CEA SEEKS FCC INTERVENTION ON CABLE INTEROPERABILITY
FCC should require cable operators to stop blocking fully functional navigation devices for DTV, CEA said in semiannual report on cable-DTV compatibility. Nov. 6 report, following report by NCTA that was filed by Oct. 31 deadline (CD Nov 1 p7), drew heated response from NCTA. CEA said lack of agreement on DTV-cable compatibility “not only suffocates the market” for DTV cable set-tops, but “also stalls the crucial transitional market for DTV receivers.”
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“It will only be through Commission intervention that American consumers will experience the full benefits” of digital cable and DTV, CEA Vp-Technology Policy Michael Petricone said in report. He asked FCC to require establishment of “open” standards-setting process, accelerate phase-out of proprietary cable set-tops, require cable to pass through additional Program & System Information Protocol (PSIP) data and encourage cable to “curb its anticonsumer and anticompetitive provisions” on Point-of-deployment Host Interface (PHI) modules for copyright protection.
FCC Cable Bureau Chief Ken Ferree told reporters Wed. he thought there had been some significant movement on DTV-cable compatibility and he was “actually encouraged” by recent meetings with cable and CEA executives on question of HDTV and set-top interoperability.
NCTA already has complied with all FCC requirements on cable-DTV compatibility, NCTA Gen. Counsel Neal Goldberg told us in response to CEA filing. Original NCTA-CEA agreement in Feb. 2000, which is basis for requirement for FCC reports, required setting standards only for implementing compatibility, he said, and all standards have been set and are being implemented by cable operators. He said, for example, that original agreement called only for passthrough of relatively limited PSIP information: “We did exactly what we said we would do in the agreement. That was what they wanted then because they didn’t want to make the sets more expensive. Now they want more in order to add functionality. We're willing to talk about that.”
Despite NCTA claim that it complied with agreement and FCC requirements, CEA said its “members remain unable to design or build any product with minimum competitive functionality for direct operation on a cable system.” Petricone also said he was “concerned about the lack of commitment by individual cable MSOs” on implementing standards. For example, he said, lack of “complete and comprehensive” PSIP data meant competitive electronic program guides were impossible and cable was continuing to focus on its own proprietary guides.
CEA also criticized cable’s PHI licensing, which it said “would allow content providers to curb home recording rights, impede market entry of new consumer electronics equipment and functionalities, compromise manufacturers’ intellectual property rights and threaten the continued interoperability of legacy equipment.” NCTA’s Goldberg said CEA complaint actually was with studios, which wanted even more limits on program copying than PHI would allow: “Otherwise the studios won’t give us the programming. The CEA wants no limits on copying, the studios want complete protection, and we're in the middle.”
If cable doesn’t agree on new interoperability standards through open process by set milestones, FCC should require cable to accept alternative standards, CEA said, although Goldberg said process already was open. CEA also said Commission should require cable to use point-of-deployment set-tops that allow competing program guides (Goldberg said Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta offered them but retailers weren’t interested).