The FCC is considering new set-top box requirements aimed at making Internet content available on television screens. In a slide show presented at a December 16 meeting to review options under consideration for the National Broadband Plan due from the FCC in February , the FCC said “delivering Internet video to the television could drive higher broadband adoption and utilization . . . as new apps and uses would emerge.” The FCC also noted that 99% of households have TVs, versus 79% with computers.
Multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs)–including cable and direct broadcast satellite companies, as well as telcos and others who provide cable-type video content—could be required to provide small low-cost home gateway devices to bring open Internet access to the set-top box. Specifically a slide from the FCC presentation said, the gateway would bridge “proprietary MTVD elements such as conditional access, tuning and reception functions to common open standard widely used in home communications interfaces,” with the goal of enabling “a retail navigation device to operate on all MVPD platforms.”
In the slide show presentation, the FCC also said it was considering fixes to CableCARD. That initiative, undertaken after the 1996 Telecom Act, required cable providers to offer a credit card-sized device to view and record digital video programming channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and televisions without the use of a set-top box. Such fixes, one of the slides said, could include addressing “current barriers to implementation of CableCARD, including bundled provisioning, pricing and billing.”
