Comcast is finally letting you ditch the set-top box.
Despite investing heavily in X1, its newest cable box, Comcast said this week that customers will now be able to get rid of their set-top boxes by switching to an app embedded within new Samsung smart TVs and Roku devices.
The app can display your channel lineup and information about shows and movies. And because it’s all software-driven, it will potentially allow Comcast’s more than 22 million customers to return their cable box — equipment that costs the average household more than $230 a year to rent, according to a recent congressional probe.
If Comcast’s plan takes off, it could lead to huge savings for cable viewers not to mention big profits for these device manufacturers and any others that decide to partner with the company on its terms. And it will probably save Comcast some money as well, as it will no longer have to produce the equipment in the first place and pass the associated costs on to the consumer. These changes promise to benefit some TV viewers — and Comcast, too.
But this story is not just about Comcast. In fact, the company’s announcement is merely one facet of an all-out assault by the cable industry against a government proposal that it says would undermine the very heart of its business. In the balance are a set of regulations that, if approved, would effectively wrest control of the TV content you pay for from the cable companies that provide it.
With the future of the industry at stake, cable officials are pointing to Comcast’s boxless vision of the future as a reason that Washington should back off. As one industry spokesman put it after Comcast’s announcement, tweeting:
“If you really want to unlockthebox, the FCC should step aside and let the marketplace continue to innovate: https://t.co/spStFeB1vb”
To understand just how big a deal this is, we have to talk about the proposed regulations and what they would do. The rules would mean anybody — Apple, Google or even an app developer working from his or her garage — could design alternative ways to display the TV channels to which you subscribe. It would mean being able to use remote controls, search functions and user interfaces that didn’t have to be authorized by your cable company. The goal, regulators say, is to give consumers more choice and greater competition, as well as more innovative devices and apps with which to interact with cable content.
To use Comcast again as an example: While the company’s boxless offering gets the industry somewhat toward that goal, the Federal Communications Commission believes it isn’t enough, because at the end of the day this ecosystem would still be dominated by a cable company seeking to protect its own interests. Agency officials said Wednesday that even though Comcast’s offering seems to provide new ways to watch TV, it simply amounts to a walled garden of pre-approved interfaces and equipment from Comcast’s sanctioned partners.
“While we do not know all of the details of this announcement, it appears to offer only a proprietary, Comcast-controlled user interface,” the FCC said Wednesday in a statement defending its proposal.
Comcast said in a blog post that in addition to coming up with novel and innovative products such as its app, it is willing to work with any company to install the cable app on their devices.
But if announcements such as Comcast’s reflect a carrot-based approach to warding off unwanted regulation, the cable industry is also waving a very large stick.
Mixing threats of litigation with a sustained lobbying effort, the industry hopes to keep the FCC proposal from ever bearing fruit. Beyond their own appeals to the agency not to move forward, cable and TV content officials are also attempting to persuade members of Congress to apply their own pressure on the FCC. The result is a sophisticated, multi-headed Washington strategy that seems to be as much about power politics as it is about the future of television.
In a media briefing on Thursday, a top cable trade group warned that it would almost certainly sue the FCC if it went ahead with its current plan.
“Yes, we would seek legal redress in the courts,” said Michael Powell, who leads the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and is a former FCC chairman.
Many of the cable industry’s allies, including Hollywood producers and the Walt Disney Co., have been writing op-eds and meeting with policymakers in an attempt to peel support away from the agency’s proposal.
Others aligned with the industry — particularly content companies representing U.S. minorities — have helped persuade some federal lawmakers to say the rules should be scrapped.
