Engadget’s Peter Rojas Stephen Speicher has a superb piece that explains why the CableCARD and OpenCable standards are seemingly stuck in neutral. The CableCARD eliminates the need to have a digital set-top box for your cable connection. Instead, by plugging the card into your PC or DVR or other compatible device, you get the direct digital stream from the cable company. Sounds great. Except the cable companies are fighting tooth and nail. Rojas asks the right questions:
Assuming that TiVo (due to its new relationship with Comcast) stops being the staunch advocate for advances in CableCARD technology, who will fight for the consumer?
That’s unclear – the FCC has shown no strong signs that they will be fighting for the consumer. Recently, a July 2006 deadline that would have banned cable companies from producing any new “integrated” (i.e., not OpenCable) set-top boxes was pushed back by at least another year. Many assume that the cable companies will use the delay to argue that the mandate for OpenCable is unfair and unduly regulates the cable segment of the market. Worse yet, they might be successful. After all, with the emergence of IPTV and the entry of SBC and Verizon into the subscription TV game, it’s hard to argue that only the traditional cable players should be bound by such regulations. In any case, few expect the ban to go into effect even by its delayed July 2007 deadline.
It might be easy to assume that with rumors of an OpenCable-compatible Media Center Edition in the works, Microsoft will be fighting for the consumers. However, in a recent letter to the FCC, Microsoft joined Comcast (never a good sign) in arguing that the ban on integrated set-top boxes be delayed. With Microsoft participating in so many different segments of the cable market (e.g. Comcast already runs Microsoft Foundation Edition software on many of its current boxes and Microsoft has signed deals with both SBS and Verizon regarding IPTV) it’s unclear whether Microsoft would be willing to rock the boat.
The persistent rumor is that this fall’s update to Windows XP Media Center Edition will support CableCARD-compatible hardware. Will it happen? I’m not betting on it.
Ed Bott 