DSTAC Completes Report, MVPDs Ask FCC To Take No Action
Just a half-hour after the FCC's Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee formally completed its work and submitted its final report, 30 companies -- many of them DSTAC member pay-TV companies -- released a statement asking the FCC to not take any action based on the document. “There is no need for FCC technology mandates in a marketplace where consumers can access MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] and OVD [online video distributor] content on a wide and growing array of retail devices,” said the statement, signed by the American Cable Association; DSTAC members Arris, Comcast and Dish Network; NCTA; Verizon; and many others in the pay-TV industry. The Free State Foundation and NCTA also separately urged the FCC not to interfere with the marketplace through regulations on downloadable security. “The report reflects substantial opposition to the idea of a new, government-imposed technology mandate,” NCTA said. Several MVPD industry officials had told us they wanted the FCC to take no action (see 1508260034).
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DSTAC members associated with the group’s non-MVPD faction, the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, told us they believe the FCC should move forward with at least some of the proposals in the report. “Why would Congress create a task force to do nothing?” asked Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer. The Free State Foundation in an article Friday recommended the FCC take no action, but also said: “It appears the Commission hopes to use the report as a springboard for new video device regulations.”
By submitting the report before the Sept. 4 deadline mandated by the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR), the committee fulfilled its congressional obligations, FCC staff said Friday. The report will go to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office. Though some FCC officials have told us it will be circulated to eighth-floor offices, one former FCC official said that’s unlikely unless Wheeler decides to act on the report; with downloadable security being extremely technical and not related to more pressing concerns for the FCC such as the TV incentive auction, the report isn't likely to be a high priority, the former FCC official said. “The Commission will consider the report,” an FCC spokesman told us, declining to comment on what might follow.
The report contains two technical proposals on security for content flowing into set-top boxes, and two accompanying proposals on other aspects of the proposed systems such as navigation. The MVPD interests on the DSTAC support a security system based on HTML5, which they say is widely used, combined with a proprietary app-based approach for the nonsecurity aspects of the system. The app approach is in use now, and very successful, the joint MVPD statement said. The app system prevents consumer choice because it prevents consumers from having control over their devices, Google Fiber Vice President-Access Services Milo Medin said. Meanwhile, the approach supported by the Consumer Video Choice Coalition combines a virtual headend and link protection approach to security with a competitive navigation system that works similar to CableCARD, and could even use CableCARDs, Hauppauge Chief Technologist Brad Love said. That system “disassembles” the "unique" features offered by MVPDs on their systems and would “turn MVPDs into suppliers of programming for commercial use by third parties without responsibilities to content providers or distributors,” the joint letter said.
The report doesn’t recommend either proposal over the other, in accordance with staff guidance handed down by the FCC in April after early disagreements over the committee’s scope dominated early meetings. Though Public Knowledge and TiVo argued that the DSTAC’s scope went beyond strictly downloadable security, Charter Chief Technology Officer Jay Rolls said Friday the language of STELAR doesn’t require that.
The makeup of the DSTAC “foretold the outcome of the report,” said Beyond Broadband Technology Director-Strategic Communications and Development Steve Effros, who isn’t a member of the group but follows downloadable security issues. The DSTAC’s membership resulted in “little if any consensus on fundamental policy issues, let alone consensus on technical recommendations,” Effros said. "Whatever the report recommends, the FCC should consider another course: eliminating its video device regulations," the Free State Foundation said.
The two factions on the DSTAC did agree on some issues, engineers on both sides told us. None of the proposals requires common reliance as CableCARD did, and both are based on an IP protocol, Rolls said. By conclusively finding that some kinds of technology won’t work for the needs of the stakeholders, the DSTAC advanced the discussion of downloadable security, TiVo CTO Joseph Weber told us.