owns a cable service, CableOne I have no idea what its management thinks about this issue and don't particularly care, as it doesn't provide service anywhere near the Washington area.)Īt this point, you don't need the fingers of one hand to count your CableCard options: There are TiVo's DVRs, Moxi's lesser-known recorders, Ceton's computer add-on. The FCC's 2007 requirement that cable operators use CableCards in their own products failed to budge things. Manufacturers, in turn, backed away from the technology after seeing poor sales. The idea was to allow the cable-TV hardware business to function like a normal electronics market: Instead of being limited to devices offered by your cable operator, you could buy the gadget of your choice and then pick a service.īut cable operators failed to support CableCard in practice, instead continuing to push their own boxes and DVRs.

This technology, developed a decade ago, miniaturized the security and authentication features of the cable box into a card you could pop into any compatible TV or video recorder. The FCC's actions, as outlined in a press release (PDF) and documented in a 59-page filing (PDF), attempt to fix long-running problems with CableCard. The FCC's rules will also require that cable companies clearly document their CableCard options and provide the same channel lineup to subscribers who rent their own boxes and those who buy other vendors' CableCard-compatible devices.īut don't think that today's rulings will yield a greater selection of cable-compatible hardware anytime soon. You won't have to sit around your house waiting for the cable guy to pop a CableCard into your TiVo, under regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission today.

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