[mythtv-users] FCC will allow encryption of basic cable, offers measures to protect open access

[Gabe Rubin]

On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 9:06 AM, Gary Buhrmaster
<gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:
> ...
>> And it says smaller providers are exempt from these restrictions. I
>> take that to mean that they are free to encrypt the signals while
>> giving nothing back in return. WTF? How about if you can't meet the
>> full mandate then you don't get permission to encrypt?
>
> While the definition of "smaller" is a bit largish for my taste,
> the issue is that the small ("mom and pop") regional MSOs
> simply do not have the resources to be able to pay for
> the STBs and/or HD-DTA or E-DTAs and give them out for
> "free"(*).  Unlike the bigger MSOs (say, Comcast, Time Warner
> Cable), that can roll out the DTAs by region, and spread their
> costs out over years (if they choose), for the small MSOs, for
> this to be a solution they implement, have to do it all at once
> (they only have one franchise/region).
>
> The FCC (and the government in general) has always
> supported the issues that small businesses (and those
> that support small (usually rural) areas), because their
> needs are simply different from those in high density areas.
> I believe the FCC was concerned that including the small
> companies in the ruling might very well have forced some
> of them to throw in the towel, and be borged by one of the
> big players, as has happened to many of the small regionals
> over the years.
>
Somewhat ironically, I use a smaller cable provider (not comcast, cox,
TW).  Not sure if it can be considered mom and pop, but most people
have never heard of it.  And it provides me with every single channel
(that I pay for) via firewire.  Have not bothered to see if I can get
everything via a QAM tuner as I don't have one, but it would not
surprise me.