The cable box is one of those accepted facts of TV that never seems to change. You get cable, they send you the box, you pay for the box, you figure out how the box works except for those weird directional buttons that seem useless, and then throw the remote in with the others and stream Netflix instead. But if the FCC gets its way, your cable box will actually be useful… or even something you can chuck altogether.
The FCC’s argument really boils down to three simple points. One, you probably don’t need a cable box in a world where almost everybody has a smartphone, tablet, laptop, Chromecast, game console, or smart TV. Two, cable boxes are ridiculously expensive for what you get: The FCC calculates the cost of cable boxes has gone up 185 percent since 1994 while the cost of equivalent electronics has dropped 90 percent. And three, they’re too restrictive, since, you know, you rent them from your cable company and the cable company controls it completely.
The FCC’s proposed rules would change all that. First, it’d make the cable companies offer up the software in their boxes to any company that wants a crack at it, and they’d have to let users install whatever apps they liked. Secondly, you wouldn’t be required to have a cable box if you didn’t want one. And finally, cable companies have to offer the necessary data to anybody who wants it.
Expect the cable companies to fight this tooth and nail. They makes $20 billion a year on cable box leases, and any competition would almost certainly eat into that. On the other hand, it’s hard to see anybody other than the cable industry complaining about not having to rent out a box every month. The rules are circulating for public comment now.
(via the FCC)