Set-top Lobbying Intensifies Days Before FCC Vote
A flood of programmers, consumer groups and industry associations filed into the FCC in recent days to lobby commissioners and their staff (see 1602110055) on a controversial set-top box NPRM ahead of the sunshine notice deadline for Thursday's meeting. The FCC proposal is intended to make it easier for consumers to buy retail set-tops instead of leasing them from pay-TV companies. The documents were posted Thursday and Friday in docket 15-64. They come from groups that don't always lobby the agency, and/or top officials at those groups that don't often personally visit the eighth floor.
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Association CEOs like MPAA's Chris Dodd and NCTA's Michael Powell, and groups such as the newly formed Future of TV Coalition, American Cable Association, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council visited the FCC to argue against the NPRM. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, TiVo and a group of programmers and public interest groups that included Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition lobbied in support of it. The lobbying push is the last chance for opponents to try to get something into the draft NPRM that will "gum up the works," said Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer in an interview Friday.
The NPRM is seen as being largely based on the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee proposal that was supported by Google, Public Knowledge, TiVo and other members of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, and including little of the apps-based DSTAC proposal that was supported by most multichannel video program distributors. Through this lobbying push, the pay-TV groups are likely hoping to have language inserted in the draft NPRM that involves the apps-based proposal to put it on more equal footing with the CVCC-backed concept, cable and FCC officials told us. If the NPRM includes questions seeking comment on aspects of the apps-based proposal, it will be easier for MVPDs to push the proceeding in that direction when actual rules are on the table, cable attorneys told us. For that plan to work, MVPDs likely need a Democratic commissioner to push for apps-based changes, since Chairman Tom Wheeler is considered unlikely to listen to such appeals from the Republican side, industry and agency officials said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn emphasized the neutrality of the FCC NPRM in a C-SPAN interview to have been televised over the weekend (see 1602110063).
Consumers already view MVPD services over a variety of devices such as smart TVs, Rokus and tablets using apps, said Future of TV Coalition figures Powell, Dodd, Bright House Networks President Nomi Bergman, ACA President Matt Polka and others in meetings with Wheeler and Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn Wednesday. "MVPDs want consumers to enjoy MVPD services on their own devices," said the coalition in an ex parte filing. "There is no reason to interfere with content licensing in a market that is flourishing, not failing." Representatives of AT&T and the MPAA met with Wheeler aide Phil Verveer Thursday to argue the set-top NPRM will discourage investment in progamming and undermine consumer protection, said an ex parte filing.
The FCC's numbers on consumer use of leased set-top devices are "fuzzy math," said NCTA in a letter to the FCC Friday. A survey from the offices of Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., used "exaggerated totals" and doesn't take into account MVPD promotions and discounts on set-top fees, said the association. Another study provided by the Consumer Federation of America ignores set-top costs, NCTA said.
The FCC's proposal is silent on diverse programming, said the Black Women's Roundtable in an ex parte filing. The video "ecosystem" the FCC's proposals would create doesn't address how creators of diverse content can find an audience, it said. MMTC said it supports the proposal's goals of choice and competition but is concerned it could have unintended consequences, according to an ex parte filing. The proposal could harm consumers if device manufacturers are allowed to ignore licensing agreements, MMTC said. The current record is also "not sufficient" on the proposal's impact on diversity, it said.
The MVPD arguments raise issues that are specious and never occurred under CableCARD, Incompass said in an ex parte filing. The FCC's plan to use an open standards-setting body to oversee the new box regime can succed because it's already possible to create a competitive navigation device, it said. An open set-top market will "open markets" for underserved content, said Free Press, NHMC and programmers GFNTV and UnifyMe TV in meetings with Wheeler Feb. 9, according to an ex parte filing. The FCC shouldn't allow the Charter's planned buy of Time Warner Cable (see 1602120046) to go through without making set-tops more competitive, said CCIA.