Another Monopoly going down?

[lupi]

FCC to vote on proposal eliminating Cable company grip on set top boxes.


http://recode.net/2016/01/27/its-time-to-unlock-the-set-top-box-market/



He is correct in every point he makes and it is hard to say any unintended consequences would be worse than the status quo.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Monolpoly is part of this countries history and it will continue to be the part of this countries future. Now days they are just getting more creative at hiding it.

You add legal corruption (lobbying) to the equation and I'm not exactly sure how anyone can be even remote surprised.

 

[Artdeco]

I'm really liking what the FCC has been doing lately.

 

[Darwin333]

Awesome! I might have cable TV today if it wasn't for the absurd rental fees of their boxes. Some of the advertised deals are decent enough but by the time I add boxes for 4 rooms the price goes well beyond the point at which I'd be willing to pay.

I might spend $50 a month for the convenience of cable TV and certain channels, which is often offered. I won't spend $100 a month which is what it comes up to after you add the rental fees. Not to mention that it that it just generally pisses me off that I have no choice but to rent it from them at an absurdly high rate.

 

[JoeBleed]

If it works, this will basically be the second time this has happened. They had a tight/proprietary grip on them in the beginning with analog signal. Then they had to open it up which allowed TVs to have the cable tuner built in. then they started working their way back to having control over them again.

I hope they can free it up again so you don't have to have those shitty cable boxes and are free to source your own, better, dvr/tuner if you wish. Cable cards are not much better. If any better really because you still have to lease them. Not sure about their power consumption.

 

[Sonikku]

Comcast must be fuming. They strategically placed their own suits at the FCC precisely to curb stop any move towards forcing them to compete. Surely they must be seeing things like this and net neutrality as nothing short of a betrayal. These new FCC guys better plan to retire after their current gig as they won't be holding another job in the telecom industry ever again.

 

[tortillasoup]

aside from the fees, cable boxes are just an awful waste of electricity.

 

[cbrsurfr]

Tivo + Cablecard + Lifetime + Tivo Mini's if you want more than 1 room. Tivo has a steep initial cost that most people just can't get over so they continue to pay 28 a month for DVR + 10 a month for HD + additional outlets.

Done with the Tivo after a couple years? No problem sell your gear online and recoup some of the costs.

I switched to OTA so my Tivo paid for itself in the first 9 months. Now it's all gravy. Plus it's easier than ever to upgrade the drive for more space.

 

[Zee]

I'm really liking what the FCC has been doing lately.

but... but... obama!

 

[Imp]

Being freed from cable boxes would be awesome. Just make it an HTPC program/app. Why? My DVR retails for $500 and I rent-to-owned it for like $600, I can get a fully functional laptop with Windows for around $300. Plenty of desktops for $500 or less. And with a PC, maybe I could use Wifi to connect TVs instead of fuqing 100' of RG-6 all over the house. Plus maybe I won't need to look up the special button sequence to reboot my box if it's wonky.

One of the big telecom companies here actually has an internet based cable/TV system. If I remember right, only one box needs to be wired to a modem/router, additional boxes are wifi.

 

[poofyhairguy]

This might be really good for companies like Roku and TiVo if they can compete to be your cable box. This is also the kind of market change the Xbox One was built for.

 

[TwiceOver]

Cable Card worked out so well, why not.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Tivo + Cablecard + Lifetime + Tivo Mini's if you want more than 1 room. Tivo has a steep initial cost that most people just can't get over so they continue to pay 28 a month for DVR + 10 a month for HD + additional outlets.

Done with the Tivo after a couple years? No problem sell your gear online and recoup some of the costs.

I switched to OTA so my Tivo paid for itself in the first 9 months. Now it's all gravy. Plus it's easier than ever to upgrade the drive for more space.

You are also assuming that the cable company keeps charging a low rate for the cable card. I was thinking about picking up a TiVo for it to simply be a box. Fios cable card rental is $8 per month and the box rental was $11 basically it would take be close to 20 years to justify the savings.

Box rentals piss me off last year I calculated that we have spent about $1200 in rental fees for one box over the lifetime of our Fios service and they are pretty cheap for box rentals in my area. They should give you an option to simply buy a box, I'd be fine with the carriers charging a reasonable mark up on them too I don't expect to buy it at cost.

 

[JimKiler]

Cable Card worked out so well, why not.

But this time it will work...after years of creating standards and by then most will have cut the cable TV cord.

 

[BUTCH1]

Awesome! I might have cable TV today if it wasn't for the absurd rental fees of their boxes. Some of the advertised deals are decent enough but by the time I add boxes for 4 rooms the price goes well beyond the point at which I'd be willing to pay.

I might spend $50 a month for the convenience of cable TV and certain channels, which is often offered. I won't spend $100 a month which is what it comes up to after you add the rental fees. Not to mention that it that it just generally pisses me off that I have no choice but to rent it from them at an absurdly high rate.

Don't forget you local government and state tack on fee's as well, why? cause they can, that's why. WTF is an "internet connectivity" fee about?, here in FL there is no state income tax so they have to get creative in grabbing $$ from people. My favorite LOL fee is the "tire and battery disposal fee" tacked onto every car rented in FL, gee, I was only going to have the car 5 days, did Avis plan on changing out the tires and putting in a new battery when I brought it back?. I'd wish they'd be just honest and open and list it as " we're going to fuck you for $5 fee cause we can".

 

[Imp]

Would a cable card even be necessary? I'm guessing it'd be used to hardware-decode the signal using a MAC address.

Log-in and password should be doable. Even if it's not perfect, not having to deal with a supply chain of physical devices that go obsolete every few years should be worth it for telcos.

 

[lupi]

Cable Card worked out so well, why not.

There was a time when most TVs came with a CC slot. Would be easy to think the software component to the new scheme could be met by having a log in on the TV or some other consumer bought device connected to the tv.

Cable companies have realized nice $$$ from the situation as is so they aren't keen on it changing for that reason alone. Everything else they say is just crap tossed at the wall for diversion.

 

[zinfamous]

Don't forget you local government and state tack on fee's as well, why? cause they can, that's why. WTF is an "internet connectivity" fee about?, here in FL there is no state income tax so they have to get creative in grabbing $$ from people. My favorite LOL fee is the "tire and battery disposal fee" tacked onto every car rented in FL, gee, I was only going to have the car 5 days, did Avis plan on changing out the tires and putting in a new battery when I brought it back?. I'd wish they'd be just honest and open and list it as " we're going to fuck you for $5 fee cause we can".

well, I understand the car and battery fee for owners, when you pay for a service like....getting a new battery and new tires, but for rentals. That is new.

I wonder if there is some sort of explanation for this? Is it that the rental companies pay a greatly increased fee for this in maintaining the fleet, and it's simply a cost they pass on to customers?

I can see how they'd rather the customer blame the evil government for taxes! rather than just nudge that cost into the rental fee. But it's something every business does and something we, as Americans, expect I guess. Most countries, you just have a purchase price. That's it. For whatever reason, we have to know ever damn cent that we are paying and where it is going on every piece of paper that most of us never read anyway.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Comcast doesn't charge anything for 1 cable card so that is one thing they haven't tried to screw me on.

 

[KeithP]

He is correct in every point he makes and it is hard to say any unintended consequences would be worse than the status quo.

Ok...I will say it then. We are talking about Tom Wheeler here. I imagine whatever he proposes will be designed to do one thing, increase cable companies profits and control.

-KeithP

 

[Anubis]

umm good. the STB is in general a total POS, slow, buggy nightmare that they want to charge you 1500$ to replace if you break it

 

[Sonikku]

Comcast doesn't charge anything for 1 cable card so that is one thing they haven't tried to screw me on.

...Yet. :hmm:

 

[shortylickens]

I can only assume this is a good thing.

When AMD got popular it forced Intel to work harder and keep prices reasonable.

So, yeah. GAME ON!

 

[Imp]

umm good. the STB is in general a total POS, slow, buggy nightmare that they want to charge you 1500$ to replace if you break it

What? You don't like waiting 5 seconds for channels to change or for your channel number input to miss a number but when you mash it five times, it eventually changes the channel 5 times?

 

[Brainonska511]

well, I understand the car and battery fee for owners, when you pay for a service like....getting a new battery and new tires, but for rentals. That is new.

I wonder if there is some sort of explanation for this? Is it that the rental companies pay a greatly increased fee for this in maintaining the fleet, and it's simply a cost they pass on to customers?

I can see how they'd rather the customer blame the evil government for taxes! rather than just nudge that cost into the rental fee. But it's something every business does and something we, as Americans, expect I guess. Most countries, you just have a purchase price. That's it. For whatever reason, we have to know ever damn cent that we are paying and where it is going on every piece of paper that most of us never read anyway.

I'd bet most rentals in Florida are to out of state visitors. State governments have no problem raising taxes on the backs of visitors. Its more politically palatable because those people don't vote in your state.