Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

ArsTechnica has an article on the CableCard integration required by the FCC, always a confusing subject. Basically, the U.S. government has tried to create a new market for cable set-top boxes with the CableCard requirement. From the article:

Beginning in July, though, cable operators became subject to the “integration ban” and could no longer offer most CableCARD-free cable boxes. With the cable companies forced to play on the same field as the third-party players, a viable market for “navigation devices” was expected to develop. As we noted above, that hasn’t happened yet.

I think the article is worth the read but misses the point slightly. No one is going to buy a simple set-top box. People want additional features or slick interfaces, like Tivo. The point of the integration ban was to make the cable companies use CableCARD themselves, to level the playing field with companies like Tivo. The real advantage of CableCARD will be opening up access to third-party DVRs, like Moxi, and the TVs.