The American Cable Association has no particular objection to the proposed AllVid device but asked the Federal Communications Commission to keep the needs of small operators in mind as it proceeds.
The approach is in general alignment with the NCTA’s, which has pledged to support the FCC in its attempt to define a retail device that would allow consumers to connect to any pay-TV service – provided that everyone actually has to comply, and not just cable.
ACA President and CEO Matthew Polka said, “With the FCC shifting away from strict reliance on the CableCard regime – a costly experiment that almost all acknowledge has been a failure – the ACA recommends that the FCC carefully move forward in crafting new ways to promote the retail sale of affordable navigation devices, as ACA members want to avoid retrofitting their systems with expensive new software and capital equipment.”
The FCC has proposed to replace the CableCard with the “AllVid” approach, which would define an adapter that communicates with a cable, phone or satellite multichannel video service. It would perform only the tuning and security decryption functions specific to a particular provider. A “smart video device” would then connect to the adapter through an open standard and would perform navigation functions, including the presentation of programming guides and search functionality.
