Enlarge / A hand pointing the remote towards the hint of a television in a dark background. (credit: Getty Images | RoyalFive)
The Federal Communications Commission has ditched its original proposal to reform the set-top box industry and accepted an alternative plan put forward by cable companies, but is making changes that cable TV lobbyists aren’t happy about.
In February, the FCC voted 3-2 for a tentative proposal that would have forced cable companies to provide video and programming information to makers of third-party hardware or applications. Under that plan, makers of other software or devices could have created their own software and user interfaces through which cable customers could watch the channels they subscribe to.
Comcast and other cable companies claimed the original FCC proposal was too difficult to comply with, and sought to maintain control over the user interface. The industry pitched an alternative plan in which TV providers would build their own applications for third-party devices.
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Source: Ars Technica – FCC changes cable box rules to please industry, gets blowback anyway