MSOs Deployed Only 3,000 Net New Standalone CableCards In Last Three Months

The 10 biggest U.S. cable operators put a scant 3,000 net new standalone CableCards into service for customers with TiVo DVRs and other cable-ready devices in the last three months, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, as customers turned in nearly as many CableCard devices as were requested.

At this point, the cable industry has deployed more than 30 million operator-supplied set-tops with the security cards, including a net of more than 700,000 in the most recent three-month period, versus just 585,000 standalone CableCards to date, according to the NCTA's quarterly filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Sept. 30. Cable operators are subject to the FCC's so-called integrated set-top ban, which went into effect in July 2007. The integrated set-top ban was supposed to foster better MSO support for retail devices that use CableCards, which handle authentication and decryption functions to access cable TV programming. But the policy has not resulted in the FCC's hoped-for surge in sales among third-party cable-ready navigation devices. The NCTA has argued that the integrated set-top ban should be eradicated, saying it adds cost to operators while serving no purpose.