“FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s set-top cable box proposal may not come to fruition, but it may result in a good compromise,” Adam Levy writes for The Motley Fool. “In June, AT&T submitted a proposal to the FCC providing a solution to the lack of consumer choice when it comes to the hardware cable subscribers use to watch TV.”
“It proposes an industry standard for an app that could run on third-party hardware like an Apple TV or Roku box,” Levy writes. “Pay-TV providers would retain control over the content delivery, but would allow customers to choose their own hardware instead of requiring them to rent a set-top box.”
“Renting set-top boxes to customers produces an average revenue stream of $231 per household every year,” Levy writes. “That’s exactly the type of problem the FCC is looking to solve by opening up hardware to third parties and allowing customers to own devices outright.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let us use our own boxes! This is how Apple TV really gets to Input 1.
SEE ALSO:
FCC proceeds with proposal aiming to make subscription TV available via any set-top box – February 18, 2016
Why Apple investors should pay close attention to this FCC decision – February 9, 2016
U.S. FCC wants more companies making cable boxes – January 28, 2016
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
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
IPTV would allow a competitive market.
Make Comcast & other ISPs drop cable protocols and offer an IPTV option competing with others.
That is actually an excellent idea. If I have adequate internet speed, why shouldn’t I be able to buy cableTV from ANY cableTV provider? Dish, Comcast, TimeWarner, or whomever?
Of course the BIG problem is that the local cableTV provider usually has a monopoly on the high-speed internet service, but your solution gets us at least half-way there.
The FCC needs to stop Comcast and others from putting data caps on our internet!!!! That will be the next thing, they will put data caps on to limit us and charge the heck out of us! It needs stopped before its started!!!
Comcast recently raised data caps in some markets to 1 Terrabyte on all levels of residential service. It went into effect June 1. The only mention I have seen is in a Comcast Blog post. As before with the lover cap, overages are billed an extra $10 for blocks of data in 50 GB bundles.
The blog also mentioned the average Comcast customer uses about 60GB per month.
I was thinking, since AT&T bought DirecTV, something would come of this with Apple. What if Apple is working with AT&T, as proxy? It avoids FCC interaction with Apple and the complexities that goes along with it.
I can almost assure you 100% that and app or service that AT&T offers will suck ass and charge exorbitant prices. Of course they are suggesting dumb boxes where AT&T controls the content. Fuck their couch.