Drama builds for vote on FCC set-top box rules
The Federal Communications Commission's proposed rules to let pay-TV subscribers free themselves from set-top boxes may be in jeopardy.
Commissioners are expected to vote Thursday at the agency's monthly meeting on the measure, which would require pay-TV providers make free apps available to let subscribers watch programming on other devices without the need of a set-top box.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the proposal in January and the commission set it in motion a month later by a 3-2 vote. Wheeler reworked the proposed rules after initial concerns from pay-TV providers and programmers about copyright protections and consumer privacy.
However, content companies such as Disney and Time Warner remain concerned about the FCC's involvement in licensing third-party companies, while pay-TV providers and others say that the proposal goes beyond the agency's purview.
FCC may deliver death knell for set-top boxes
Urging the agency to approve the measure Tuesday were two Democratic senators, Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The FCC and Wheeler have listened to the stakeholders and addressed the issues, says Markey. "I think the approach that the FCC is taking deals with the issues that have been raised," he said.
Consumers pay, on average, $231 annually to rent set-top boxes, according to a report Markey and Blumenthal released in 2015, and the pay-TV industry takes in about $20 billion each year on rentals of the devices.
"The basic principle is consumers deserve competitive options and protection against unfair fees for set-top boxes, not exorbitant prices dictated by the cable companies," said Blumenthal.
The agency is following instructions from Congress, which in 2014 asked the FCC to increase set-top box competition. However, questions about the FCC's process remain — even among other Congressional Democrats.
More than 60 Democrats in the U.S. House signed a letter sent to the FCC last week asking the agency to extend the rule-making period and release the full revised rules that would be voted on Thursday. As of this point, the revised rules have not been made public. "It is difficult to analyze the full scope of the standard license and the FCC's role in developing and enforcing this license without knowing the full details of the proposal," the letter reads.
"What my colleagues and I are asking of the FCC is something they can do and have done in the past," said Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., about the letter in a statement.
Another concern: the proposal might be voted down. Two weeks ago, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel expressed her own uneasiness about "the FCC getting a little bit too involved in the licensing scheme here." Rosenworcel is a Democrat whose vote is needed for the rules' passage as the two Republican commissioners are expected to oppose them.
Wheeler told the committee that he was willing to change the measure and that the FCC does not want to become an arbiter of contracts between pay-TV providers and content companies that license their programs for viewing.
The issue is important to consumers because it is "another stepping stone" on the evolution of pay TV and "whether the box has a piece of this future," said Gary Arlen, a telecommunications and media analyst and president of Arlen Communications in Bethesda, Md.
And Rosenworcel's swing vote "provides drama in the sense that" most votes have gone 3-2 in Wheeler's favor, he says. Even if the commission approves the measure, the pay-TV industry is likely to file a suit blocking the rules, Arlen said.
FCC's set-top box plan still work in progress
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