The Cable Box Drama

While I was away in Italy teaching and vacationing (a bit), it seems like not much changed in the cable box drama except, perhaps, the name.  The FCC’s proposed plan to “unlock the [cable] box” to allow entry by competitive converter devices and apps to supply programming into people’s homes was met with unsurprising opposition from cable operators because of the huge potential loss in monthly revenue from cable box rental fees.  The counter proposal from the industry of “ditch the box” would limit competitive entry by opening up the current boxes to third party apps, but continue the industry’s monopoly hold on the device.   Let’s see how long this takes to resolve and how the presidential election may impact the outcome.