Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers

Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers

WASHINGTON - It has been 11 years since Congress voted to break the cable television industry's stranglehold on set-top boxes _ the devices that consumers need to receive digital programming and change channels.

So why are you still paying $5 or more a month for that thing on top of your TV?

When Congress rewrote the nation's communications laws in 1996, it envisioned a thriving retail market where subscribers could actually buy their own boxes rather than make monthly payments to the cable company in perpetuity.

Things haven't quite worked out that way. The retail market for the boxes has failed to materialize, and the cable industry has filed numerous appeals and continued to press a furious lobbying and public relations campaign to make sure it never does, foes say.

Come July 1, the gloves come off. After two years of deadline extensions, that's when the Federal Communications Commission will require cable companies to make hardware changes in all new set-top boxes that it hopes will lead to a competitive market.

(Full Article )