Electro/Telecom Industry Trends
September 2004
Cable Compatibility Helps Pave the Way for Digital Television
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July 1, 2004, marked an important milestone for the transition to digital television (DTV) in the United States. That was the day that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had mandated that 50 percent of new televisions 36 inches and larger would be required to ship with digital tuning capabilities, called ATSC, so that they would be able to receive digital transmissions. The day was also important for another reason — starting July 1, local cable companies would be required to provide support to digital cable-ready televisions.
With digital cable-ready televisions, consumers who purchase digital cable services no longer have to purchase or lease a set-top box from their cable provider in order to receive a signal. Instead, they can plug the digital cable connection directly into their television. The ease of use provided by the digital cable-ready televisions has led many in the industry, along with the FCC, to refer to the televisions as plug-and-play.
The deployment and support of digital cable-ready televisions represents a consensus among television manufacturers and cable operators on how cable systems will deliver services — an important step in the journey toward DTV. That consensus was facilitated by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in December 2002 by 14 television manufacturers and eight cable system operators and supported by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable Telecommunications Association. The MOU, which was formally accepted by the FCC in 2003, describes the cable compatibility standard for creating and supporting an integrated, unidirectional digital cable television receiver. This standard actually brings together a number of other standards created by CEA and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), including:
- SCTE 40 (2004), Digital Cable Network Interface Standard
- SCTE 65 (2002), Service Information Delivered Out-of-Band for Digital Cable Television
- SCTE 54 (2004), Digital Video Service Multiplex and Transport System for Cable Television
- CEA-679-B, National Renewable Security Standard (NRSS)
The cable compatibility standard only provides specifications for unidirectional digital cable products — those that are capable of receiving basic analog and digital programming as well as premium digital programming. For other types of content that require two-way communications, such as interactive programming guides, pay-per-view, and video-on-demand, consumers will still need to use a set-top box to access these services. For now, the creation of specifications to support bi-directional receivers is pending.
Despite this limitation, digital cable-ready televisions are attractive to both consumers and manufacturers. Instead of having to put up with a bulky set-top box and extra remote, consumers can simply insert a conditional access smart card that is provided by the cable operator, called a CableCard, into its corresponding insertion point on the TV. The CableCard does the same job as the old set-top boxes — authenticates users and decodes encrypted programming — yet is typically less expensive for consumers to lease.
Manufacturers benefit as well. Before the MOU, television manufacturers often became frustrated when the features they added to their products were either replicated or lost by the cable operator’s set-top box. Now, with the integrated system, manufacturers can focus on using these features to differentiate their products and increase sales.