Two cable operators struck back at Boxee comments that the...
Two cable operators struck back at Boxee comments that the FCC shouldn’t let systems scramble signals on the basic tier. The seller of Boxee Live TV makes a “tenuous” claim to have “reasonably relied on the encryption ban in designing…
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its product,” RCN said. Boxee and some other makers of consumer electronics that use clear QAM unencrypted cable signals to access basic-tier content don’t want the commission to OK encryptions. “Boxee’s lack of compatibility with encrypted video streams -- and lack of compatibility with even a post-converter box video stream -- are of its own making, can be easily remedied, and in any event should not slow the present rulemaking,” RCN said. That company’s request for an individual waiver so it can scramble broadcast pictures and cable channels on the basic tier is likely to wait until the FCC approves an industrywide encryption waiver, FCC officials have said. The commission should “permit cable operators to begin to encrypt basic tier signals upon release of any Order eliminating the ban on basic tier encryption, rather than forcing operators to wait until 30 days after publication in the Federal Register,” RCN said. Lawyers for the operator spoke with a staffer in the Media Bureau, said to be drafting an industrywide waiver (CD Feb 16 p7) , and with an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, a filing (http://xrl.us/bmv9hf) in docket 11-169 said. Another filing (http://xrl.us/bmv9ic), from Bend Cable, said Boxee’s contention that it has 2 million clear QAM customers in the U.S. seems inflated. “Most of these two million users do not access U.S. cable service using clear QAM because they are in other countries, or because they access video service over the air or from satellite providers, or because they do not also use the Boxee Live TV dongle to access live television,” said Bend. It has about total 35,000 video customers in an unencrypted central Oregon all-digital system, the vast majority of which won’t be hurt by encryption, Bend said. “Even if 1 percent of U.S. cable subscribers use Boxee to watch live TV (and the real number is likely much lower), 1 percent of BendBroadband’s 35 customers who could be affected by encryption is rounded to zero."