Wheeler to Meet With 'All the Players' on Set-Top Box Compromise
His office will “sit down with all the players” this week to discuss the pay-TV backed compromise set-top proposal (see 1606160059), Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday at a news conference after commissioners' meeting. The commission needs to understand the pay-TV proposal before it can decide how to react, Wheeler said. In a later news conference by the Republican FCC commissioners, Mike O’Rielly said “there was a lot to like” about the pay-TV proposal, and he hoped this week’s meetings wouldn’t be a discussion of “how to mangle it.”
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Officials from groups that both support and object to the FCC set-top plan told us they plan to meet with the commission this week, and an FCC spokeswoman said the meetings would include a variety of interested parties. “Chairman Wheeler has asked staff to arrange meetings with stakeholders to discuss the industry’s proposal,” the spokeswoman said. “He plans to meet with large and independent programmers, public interest and consumer groups, the cable industry and other parties with an interest in this proceeding.” Industry officials told us the meetings are separate events rather than large meetings involving those on both sides.
There’s a chance the FCC will move away from its original set-top plan, O’Rielly said in the news conference. Commissioner Ajit Pai said the amount of bipartisan opposition to the commission’s plan is “remarkable.” O’Rielly said he prefers the multichannel video programming distributors' plan because it’s closer to the app model the industry originally preferred and that it refutes criticisms of that app model because the MVPDs propose to offer their apps to third parties at no cost.
Consumer Video Choice Coalition representatives expressed concern about the pay-TV plan in a call last week with FCC Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and Media Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-42 Thursday. The pay-TV backed compromise set-top proposal “falls short of enabling competition and innovation” said CVCC representatives. The CVCC has supported the FCC set-top plan, and the group included representatives from Google Fiber, Incompas, Public Knowledge and TiVo. Supporters of the pay-TV proposal have been pointing to a comment from Google calling their proposal “constructive” as evidence that support for the FCC plan is eroding. “The MVPD Proposal would create a closed system in which the MVPD controls all aspects of consumer access to programming” and would provide fewer choices than CableCARD, the CVCC said. It's not clear how the pay-TV plan will allow innovation in user interfaces or permit DVR functionality, or affect broadband data caps, the CVCC said. “The Coalition encouraged the Commission to seek additional information on these issues to allow further evaluation of the MVPD Proposal.”
The MVPD proposal does have a “positive side,” the CVCC said, in its two-year time line, plan for IP-based delivery of content, and recognition that consumers want universal search functions. On the pay-TV side, CenturyLink and Cox supported the pay-TV proposal, CenturyLink in a letter to the commission and Cox in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau, Office of Strategic Planning and Office of General Counsel, according to ex parte filings.