Video Device Competition

Description

On April 21, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission released a Notice of Inquiry that seeks to better serve the goals of Congress in creating a competitive retail market for navigation devices for use with multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD).

Consumers are increasingly accessing video from multiple sources, including MVPD services, the Internet, DVDs, and over-the-air broadcasting. The NOI seeks input on ways to foster a more competitive marketplace for navigation devices and in particular calls for comment on a standardized interface that enables smart video devices to bring video from all of these sources together for ease of selection, recording, and viewing. The standardized interface could be implemented through an "AllVid" adapter that would act as an intermediary between the consumer's device and the MVPD's service. The service provider would be free to innovate within its network to improve its services, without requiring replacement of the consumer's home devices. And a consumer could switch from one provider to another and continue to use the same smart video devices.

Consumers have shown limited interest in purchasing retail devices that can access MVPD services under existing FCC rules. The FCC believes that two fundamental defects in the current regime account for this reluctance.

• First, with few exceptions retail navigation devices are unable to provide functionality beyond that available in devices that subscribers can lease from their providers and often are unable to access many of the MVPD services that leased set-top devices are able to access.
• Second, as a general matter a retail navigation device purchased for use with one MVPD's services cannot be used with the services of a competing MVPD.

The FCC seeks comment on these premises, and we invite commenters to offer other explanations for the failure of a retail market for navigation devices to emerge.

Assuming that these premises are in the main correct, the FCC proposes a solution that could address these two fundamental problems and seeks comment on them.

The FCC's all video ("AllVid") solution could give device manufacturers the ability to develop "smart" products that can access any service that an MVPD provides without the need to enter into restrictive license agreements with MVPDs. The concept also could give device manufacturers the ability to develop smart video devices that can access MVPD programming regardless of the delivery technology that the MVPD uses.

The FCC introduces and seeks comment on a model that would require MVPDs to provide a small, low-cost adapter that would connect to proprietary MVPD networks and would provide a common interface for connection to televisions, DVRs, and other smart video devices, as described below. This adapter, a further development of the concept of the "gateway device" would perform the conditional access functions as well as tuning, reception, and upstream communication as directed by the smart video device. The adapter and the smart video device would communicate with each other using a standard interface, but each adapter would be system-specific to a particular MVPD in order to communicate with its network. Innovations in a MVPDs' delivery technology might require substitution of a new adapter but would not require the consumer to replace her smart video device or other in-home equipment.

While the FCC seeks comment on this concept, it also encourages commenters to present other proposals that would remove barriers to the establishment of a retail market for smart video devices compatible with all MVPD services. If commenters disagree that the root problems involve limits on device functionality and portability across MVPDs, the FCC invites them to identify what they believe are the obstacles to a competitive retail market in navigation devices and to propose solutions.

Find more here http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-10-60A1.doc

Issues

A. The AllVid Concept

B. AllVid Standards

• AllVid Equipment
• Physical connection
• Communication Protocol
• Encryption and Authentication
• Content Ordering and Billing
• Service Discovery
• Content Encoding
• Intellectual Property

C. AllVid Support Requirements

• Navigation Device Economics

D. Other Issues

• Content Presentation
• Authority