Set-top court fight begins.(Brief Article)

Broadcasting & Cable, November, 1999 by McConnell, Bill

Regulators violated congressional orders when they commanded cable operators to separate the security and channel surfing functions of digital set-top boxes, the industry told a federal appeals court last week. "The FCC decided it should engineer an environment in which a consumer would have no reason at all to prefer navigation devices offered by his or her service provider over navigation devices offered by retailers," cable equipment makers and the National Cable Television Association said in a court brief.

When Congress directed the FCC to issue rules that ensure competition in the set-top box market, the agency was told not to impair cable operators' ability to sell boxes, diminish security protections, dictate detailed technical requirements or reverse...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.