Phoenix: FCC's AllVid proposal will do nothing to spur retail market in set-tops

The Phoenix Center argues in a new paper that the Federal Communications Commission's AllVid proposal may "do more harm than good."

The FCC has proposed shoring up the CableCARD regime in the near term and spurring the creation of a universal gateway device that would deliver both broadband and traditional video to TV sets. Its twin goals are to spur retail marketing in set-tops, which it failed to do with the CableCARD regime, and to spur the adoption of broadband given that some 99% of households have a TV, while only 75%-80% have a computer. But the new Phoenix Center study argues that, at least in terms of spurring a retail market in set-tops, distributors have no "anti-competitive preference for self-supply." Why? "If the equipment can be produced more efficiently and sold at a lower price in a competitive retail market, then the provider will embrace such a market to the benefit of both provider and the consumer," the paper argues.