FCC pushes for TV providers to drop set-top boxes, use apps

To me, it sounds like the FCC is simply going to shift the $ around. For example, instead of paying rent for a set-top box to my cable company, I will need to continue to pay for cell phone service. I would need to buy / purchase / obtain a cell phone if I didn't already have one.

What am I babbling about? This information from my "CBJ Business Daily" email:

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Cable TV providers doing business in the Corridor and nationwide could be forced to embrace more digital viewing options if a new proposal from the FCC is adopted.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote Sept. 29 on a proposal from Chairman Tom Wheeler that would require cable television providers to offer customers a free app as an alternative to renting set-top boxes.

The set-top boxes, sometimes called set-top units, convert cable TV signals into content that can be viewed on televisions, all of which, when purchased new, are digital. Many units have built-in applications meant to support internet-based programming from providers such as Netflix, Comcast Xfinity and others.

According to the FCC, U.S. cable TV customers pay an average of $231 fees annually to rent the set-top boxes, or a national total of about $20 billion a year. If adopted, the nation's largest pay-TV providers, who represent 95 percent of pay-TV subscribers, would have two years to comply with the rules.

"This is a golden era for watching television and video," Mr. Wheeler wrote in an op-ed published yesterday in the Los Angeles Times. "By empowering consumers to access their content on their terms, it's about to get cheaper - and even better."

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