Set-Top Order Talks Could Still Stall; Rosenworcel Meeting With Stakeholders
Industry officials see the set-top box draft order as stalled, even as FCC officials told us work on the item is still occurring. Ex parte filings show a small surge in recent conversations on the document between stakeholders and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's office. Rosenworcel has been viewed as the deciding vote on the item since it was pulled from the September commissioner meeting agenda (see 1609290076). Since Monday, Incompas, Microsoft and a group of content company officials spoke with Rosenworcel's office, according to industry officials and ex parte filings. “Productive conversations are ongoing,” an FCC spokesman told us.
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Industry opponents of the set-top plan told us they have heard of little activity recently, and it's seen as possible the plan could be permanently stalled, though content company and pay-TV officials all said they aren't certain what's going to happen. The set-top rule isn't set for the FCC's Nov. 17 tentative agenda, and the makeup of the commission could change with the new year, a content company official noted. That calculation has industry officials focused on commissioners' Dec. 15 meeting agenda as an important indication of the item's fate. If the rules aren't on the agenda for December, it's uncertain when they could return, a content company official said. It's possible the item could be approved outside of a meeting, though Chairman Tom Wheeler is seen as likely to put the item on an agenda since that would force his colleagues to vote, industry officials said.
Election Day will help decide the agenda of the meetings and likely the fate of the item, one industry official said. The makeup of Congress could determine if Rosenworcel will be reconfirmed, and the presidential election could decide if Wheeler will stay on at the FCC for some months under a new president. If he knows there's more time, the December meeting becomes less important, the industry official said.
Discussions in the stakeholders' lobbying meetings with Rosenworcel's office dispute the idea that the item is stalled, FCC officials said. “As the ex partes reflect, the office is still discussing legal and technical issues with stakeholders in this proceeding,” an FCC official said. Some of the recent ex parte conversations have been at the Rosenworcel office's behest, an industry official said.
The FCC has the authority to implement its set-top plan and prevent anticompetitive terms in contracts between multichannel video programming distributors and third-party box makers, Incompas representatives said in a meeting Monday with an aide to Rosenworcel: “Oversight is completely justified given the lack of competition in this particular market in the 20 years since this provision was enacted.” Microsoft representatives met with Rosenworcel's office to ask for limits on how the set-top rules apply privacy restrictions to third party box-makers. The agency should make clear that any such compliance obligation should apply only to data that's derived exclusively from the MVPD data stream, Microsoft said.