“The government wants to make it easier for you to buy and use cable boxes from companies other than your cable provider,” Tali Arbel reports for The Associated Press. “This could help companies like TiVo, Roku and Apple deliver a cable feed, too, as part of their video recorders or streaming-TV devices.”
“Introducing competition could also help lower people’s cable bills. The Federal Communications Commission says that 99 percent of cable and satellite TV customers rent boxes from their cable providers, and that the price of cable boxes has nearly tripled since 1994,” Arbel reports. “The FCC says the average U.S. household pays $231 a year to rent a cable box.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bring it on!
SEE ALSO:
How to watch free live HDTV on your Apple TV – January 19, 2016
Apple TV review: Channels are dead. The future of TV is apps – October 29, 2015
Mossberg reviews the new Apple TV: ‘This is the one I’d buy’ – October 28, 2015
I would like to see the FCC push for more cable/ISP choices in all neighborhoods. Let the competition take care of pricing for customers.
The problem is that the cable companies and ISP’s need a certain number of customers per mile of plant to be profitable. In many cases if the same number of customers is divided between several companies none will be profitable.
Interesting. But with the way government works, we are talking two years before we see anything implemented. Technology can and will change a lot in two years.
And government continues to push has-been tech so they can be even more intrusive.
Comcast needs to die. In the broadband arena Comcast allows their users to purchase their own cable modems. But in some areas they inject popup messages to the point users give in and just lease the Comcast box. If this passes they may well do the same.
Apple needs to get into the broadband business.
Why could Apple not create a wired Virtual Network by contracting with the various Cable and Phone ISPs for data and MVNOs do on wireless for mobile phones?
If the regulators do not enforce the law it will be just like CableCard, which is supposed to accomplish this already.
The Cable cartel makes damn sure that TiVos do not work as well as their rental boxes.
I have a TiVo Roamio in the Living Room and a Cisco Comcast Box connected to my EyeTV HD on my Desktop Mac- all on the same account. The Comcast Box works as advertised and the TiVo never quite has with certain channels like HBO and Showtime- I can watch those channels content on demand on the TiVo, but the channels do not work on the tuner. Repeated visits by Comcast people and calls to TiVo have never resolved the issue.
My guess is that Comcast makes damn sure the experience is degraded on Third Party devices.
Imagine how the call with a Comcast customer service rep will go if you have a third party cable box and you’re having issues with your cable reception.
The cable companies make the rent-to-own hucksters look like honest businessmen. How about passing a simple law that says once you’ve paid off the actual cost of a cable box, it’s yours without further “rental” fee. Just like your phone.
Just need to throw in a couple safeguards – 1) ensure that the price is the actual price not something the companies can artificially conflate and 2) ensure that the companies don’t just start changing standards every two years to make the paid-off boxes obsolete. The latter could be accomplished by a requirement to ensure forward compatibility for x years.
I am really pissed that I own my own DVR that used to work fine recording shows on other channels until the “modern” boxes came along. Now I can only DVR the show that the TV is tuned to. Not to fear, I can “rent” one from Verizon for only $20 per month per set….
Try Tivo if they can provide you with a cable card. Tivo gets the DVR fee and you also have to buy the box but it’s a much better one. Worth it to me.