MVPDs Clash With TiVo, Public Knowledge in DSTAC Comments
MVPDs clashed with TiVo, Public Knowledge and Google in comments filed in FCC docket 15-64 this week on the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee's final report. The latter entities and other members of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition (CVCC) said Congress meant for the FCC to take action when it mandated the formation of the DSTAC in the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Reauthorization Act. Meanwhile, Comcast, NCTA, AT&T and others said there's no indication in the DSTAC report that the FCC should take action. A “fair reading of the report” suggests that dictating downloadable security or set-top box policy to multichannel video programming distributors “would overtax the agency’s administrative capabilities and cause harm to the development of technologies and business models,” the Free State Foundation (FSF) said in its comments. By emphasizing a competitive set-top box (STB) market the FCC “can foster the competition and consumer benefits seen in other, vibrantly competitive consumer electronics markets,” the CVCC said.
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The DSTAC report recommendation backed by the MVPDs is an app-based model that mirrors their current business practices, because the app model is thriving, NCTA said. “Pay TV apps are already delivering MVPD service to millions of consumer-owned devices in alignment with the vision” of Section 629 of the Communications Act, NCTA said. The apps-based model already works for the MVPDs and is “rapidly proliferating in today’s marketplace,” Comcast said. The model is already allowing competition in the “highly dynamic” video market, Arris said, and that fulfills the FCC's goal of fostering competition.
The app model supported by the MVPDs is proprietary, meaning only certain companies are able to compete within it, Hauppauge said, and that “stifles innovation.” The app approach “would only entrench MVPD control” of the market for STBs, TiVo said. The proof the current system should be changed is the lack of competitive retail set-top boxes, TiVo and others said. “The market today is one in which almost 99 percent of MVPD subscribers lease set-top boxes from operators,” TiVo said.
TiVo and the other CVCC members and supporters favor proposals from the DSTAC recommending a competitive navigation system “virtual head-end” downloadable security solution that would make it easy for third parties to offer competing set-top boxes, they said. The proposal has its roots in the CableCARD system, Hauppauge said. The FCC should “initiate a rulemaking proceeding to establish an updated technical standard that allows consumers to use the navigation devices of their choice,” said Comptel, also a member of the CVCC.
AT&T, NCTA, Comcast and others criticized the CVCC-backed proposals as being a retooling of the defunct AllVid proposal. Since the CVCC proposal would allow third-party devices to use a universal user interface (UI) with a video feed provided by an MVPD, it would “put the government -- and not TV innovators -- in charge of determining how programming is delivered to consumers,” NCTA said. MVPD choices of content, arrangement and menu displays are “protected forms of free speech,” FSF said. “Requiring MVPDs to disaggregate bundled content and menu products into outputs for third parties to reassemble and rebrand” could infringe First Amendment and IP rights, FSF said.
By considering recommendations outside downloadable security, the DSTAC “veered off course,” AT&T said. “Although important to competition and improved user experiences, the question of which party controls a device’s UI falls outside of the scope of content security,” Amazon said.
A more competitive set-top box market would be good for content providers, said the Writers Guild of America, West. “Increased competition in set-top boxes will also increase the importance of content available on distribution services, WGAW said. “Content availability will become a key factor in differentiation.” The MPAA disagreed, supporting the MVPDs' argument. The CVCC-backed model doesn't abide by content licensing terms, MPAA said. It could allow third parties to “disassemble the programming, features, and functions offered over distribution services and selectively reassemble some of them for their own commercial exploitation,” MPAA said.
The DSTAC didn't adequately represent small cable operators, the American Cable Association said. All the proposals presume MVPDs have transitioned to all-IP delivery, which isn't the case for many smaller operators, ACA said. The report “incorrectly assumes that all MVPDs are currently operating at a level of sophistication that few beyond the very largest operators have thus far reached.”