Set-Top Discussion Focused on Apps
Industry discussions around proposed FCC rules for set-top boxes are focused on apps-based proposals, though pay-TV carriers and proponents of the NPRM disagree what that proposal should be. “It is possible for there to be an app-oriented approach that would achieve the Commission’s goals,” said Public Knowledge in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42 Friday. “The current iteration of the MVPD app proposal is not it.” Meanwhile, multichannel video programming distributor officials have told us the apps-based proposals from PK and Incompas would create the same problems for content security as the NPRM.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
An ex parte for Viacom, CBS and other programmers suggests FCC staff are interested in a proposal that would involve a third-party-controlled app instead of one controlled by MVPDs. “We reiterated our concerns with the Commission’s original approach as well as the staff’s idea of distributing our content via an app that is controlled by an entity with whom the programmers have not directly contracted for carriage of their programming,” said the filing. A content company official told us the app proposal from FCC staff is similar to an idea floated by advocates of the FCC NPRM, involving a third party user interface "bolted-on" to the MVPD app proposal. The content companies met with staff from Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office to continue discussions “about the potential for an MVPD-controlled app as a way forward in this rule making.”
The recent focus on apps and on the MVPD proposal means an apps-based plan has become the basis of the efforts to create new set-top rules, a cable attorney told us. The FCC appears to be “sincerely” gathering information from stakeholders on the merits and disadvantages of an apps-based plan, a cable attorney told us. “FCC staff continues to meet with interested stakeholders, including programmers of all sizes, public interest groups, device manufacturers and pay-TV providers, to hear ideas and feedback," an FCC spokeswoman said. "Staff is considering all options that ensure consumers have real choice in accessing the content they’ve paid for, and no final decisions have been made.”
The MVPD HTML5-based proposal has technical problems that may make it unsuitable, Public Knowledge said in an ex parte filing Friday. ”Perhaps the most significant drawback to the HTML5 app proposal is that PK is unaware of any existing devices it would actually work with.” Companies may have to make new devices or figure out new software solutions to use the MVPD-proposed apps, Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer told us. “An app proposal that would produce apps that are not compatible with any existing device seems like an ideal solution,” PK said. If existing devices already could run an app to allow them to receive an MVPD content stream, there would be no need for a rulemaking, a cable industry official said.
The conflict over whether new rules will allow third parties to create their own user interfaces should be tabled until the technical issues surrounding the set-top plan are worked out, Bergmayer said. Those are “policy questions” that should be examined separately from the question of what technical standard the apps will use, he said. Such a separation is impossible, cable industry officials told us. Drawing a line between technical specifications and whether an app will “unbundle content” is an artificial distinction, they said. An order in the proceeding is expected early fall, cable attorneys have told us (see 1607220044).