Scary Proposition
As the industry waits for the FCC to rule on the so-called set-top integration ban, NCTA pres/CEO Kyle McSlarrow sent off a Halloween letter to the Dept of Commerce and FCC warning that maintaining the ban could put the country’s long-awaited DTV transition at risk. NCTA has asked the FCC to defer the ban until cable ops deploy a new downloadable security system, or until 2010, if they haven’t deployed the tech by then. Under the integration ban, cable operators can’t deploy non-CableCARD enabled set-tops after July 1. While the NTIA grapples with how to implement a digital-to-analog converter voucher program, “the FCC is about to decide whether to continue a policy that will tax all cable customers and discourage the migration of analog television owners into the digital age,” McSlarrow wrote.