Cable
The 10 largest cable operators, serving 90 percent of subscribers, deployed more than 489,000 CableCARDs through March 31 for use in digital cable-ready TVs and other products, NCTA said Wednesday in its latest quarterly report to the FCC. Since CableCARD…
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rules took effect July 2007, the same 10 multiple system operators also deployed more than 19.5 million operator-supplied set-top boxes with CableCARDs, the group said. That 97 percent of CableCARD-deployed set-top boxes installed between July 2007 and November 2009 were leased from cable operators rather than purchased at retail was cited in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan as evidence that competition in set-top boxes hasn’t materialized and needs to be fixed quickly (CD March 17 p7). Set-top boxes “are an important part of the broadband ecosystem,” the plan said. Lack of innovation in set-top boxes “limits what consumers can do and their choices to consume video, and the emergence of new uses and applications,” it said. “It may also be inhibiting business models that could serve as a powerful driver of adoption and utilization of broadband, such as, models that integrate traditional television and the Internet."