NCTA SEEKS FCC RECONSIDERATION OR CLARIFICATION OF PLUG-&-PLAY
NCTA, which helped broker a plug-&-play agreement between the cable and CE industries, is asking the FCC to reconsider or clarify its order largely incorporating the agreement. NCTA praised the Commission for adopting the agreement and said its objections were focused on “some narrow technical issues that arise from certain language used in the rules that varied from the language proposed” by cable and CE. Petitions for reconsideration were due Mon.
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One area concerns verification and testing of a manufacturer’s first digital TV to ensure that it and subsequent devices will tune and display cable services. NCTA said the language didn’t specify the device must be a TV. “The last thing that the digital transition needs is a new generation of ‘cable- ready’ products that cannot receive the suite of services offered and expected via cable. That would be unbelievably confusing to consumers and impose an overwhelmingly competitive disadvantage on cable, as compared to DBS, which specifies every functionality that must be placed in a DBS box,” NCTA wrote. It asked that the rules be clarified to better track the industry agreement so a manufacturer’s first DTV must be tested by CableLabs “or an appropriately qualified independent testing lab” with “qualifications comparable to those of CableLabs.”
The NCTA also wanted clarification of “some nuances” of the rules for carrying program & system information protocol (PSIP) data. Because the FCC incorporated only parts of the entire NCTA-CEA PSIP agreement, “some subtle changes of language from that agreement occurred that may be susceptible to a misunderstanding,” NCTA said. NCTA said the memorandum of understanding between the cable and CE industries was “delicately structured” to protect conditional access, to preserve the economic structure of the cable business and to assure that cable had technological tools to “provide even more attractive services to customers.” NCTA stressed that testing was vitally important because “hackers are waiting” with digital boxes, filters and Web sites to infiltrate the cable business.
Regarding testing, NCTA said, the rules as written “blurred the distinction between TV and non-TV products,” implying that having any first product certified eliminated any testing requirement for the first DTV. That would allow a manufacturer to test a digital video recorder, for example, and then simply self-certify its DTV. NCTA also said any testing facility needs specialized resources to ensure interoperability with all headends, with their varying conditional access systems, and all CableCARDS.
Also filing a petition for reconsideration was MPAA. It said the Commission should: (1) Require that the capability for selectable output control be built into devices. (2) Allow subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) content to be encoded as restrictively as “copy never.” (3) Clarify a section of the order to say it didn’t abrogate any contract obligations of multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs). (4) Simplify the procedures for announcing and challenging the launch of an “undefined business model” to make them less onerous on content owners, MVPDs and the Commission itself. The undefined business model is part of the encoding rules for programming that doesn’t fit into categories such as broadcast or video-on-demand. In such a case, a studio and program provider can negotiate copy protections, subject to appeal to the FCC.