CableCARD Notice Changes Expected for Large Systems’ HD Boxes

A draft FCC rulemaking notice about CableCARDs probably will be changed before a vote scheduled for April 21 to deal with large cable systems’ use of HD-only set-top boxes, commission officials said Monday. The draft Media Bureau notice that’s circulating proposes exempting systems with 552 MHz or less activated capacity from a requirement that boxes use separate security and navigation functions for devices that can handle HD but not more advanced functions (CD April 6 p2). The NCTA and large cable operators sought a wider HD box exemption in recent ex parte meetings, filings in docket 97-80 show.

The bureau is expected to change the notice by asking about extending the exemption to systems of all sizes, commission officials said. The draft may also propose that a wider array of systems be exempted from the CableCARD set-top integration ban than the original version did, they said. No revision had circulated by midday Monday, and it may not circulate until later this week because some important bureau officials are at the NAB show in Las Vegas, they said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.

Expanding the small-system exception has been the greatest emphasis of industry lobbyists in visits to the FCC about the rulemaking, commission officials said. Also receiving industry attention is a draft provision recommending that cable operators use IP technology to allow plug-and-play devices to receive channels that use switched digital technology, an industry lawyer said. One issue likely to get eighth-floor attention as commissioners and aides consider whether and how to change the notice before a vote on it is how allowing operators to sell more boxes that don’t use CableCARDs would work in relation to the National Broadband Plan goal of increasing the supply of video devices sold by retailers rather than being leased by operators, FCC officials said.

Allowing larger systems to use HD-only boxes lacking CableCARDs, and often called digital terminal adapters, will help reduce their cost and so the burden borne by operators and subscribers, General Counsel Neal Goldberg of the NCTA said in an interview. “It’s a consumer issue and not just a small system issue, and all consumers should have the ability to get full value out of their HD-capable sets.” The broadband plan mentioned “significant failures” by multichannel video programming distributors in supporting CableCARD devices, a CEA spokeswoman said. “The plan seeks to remedy those failures. For the commission to dismantle its rules now would run counter to its goal of ensuring a competitive marketplace for non-MVPD provisioned devices."

The HD DTA exemption should apply to “all cable systems,” said NCTA filings last week about meetings that association executives and Comcast representatives had with bureau Chief Bill Lake and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “To access HD channels on their HDTVs, consumers must use a CableCARD-enabled HD device, which typically costs far more than a DTA,” a handout said. Limiting use of one-way HD DTAs to small cable systems “would be inconsistent with the Commission’s broadband goals,” said Charter Communications filings Friday about meetings with aides to Clyburn and Commissioner Robert McDowell. Time Warner Cable, summarizing conversations with aides to Clyburn and Commissioner Meredith Baker, asked “the Commission to consider the significant costs and very limited benefits associated with the proposed requirement that an IP return path be installed in some video devices.”