The nine largest US incumbent cable operators have deployed 55 million operator-supplied set-top boxes (STB) with CableCARD modules, according to the National Cable & Television Association.
cablecardAlthough this has not significantly changed from the last tally, in February 2016, the number of CableCARD modules deployed in retail products such as TiVo boxes reached 621,400, up from 589,000 in the February report.
STBs use CableCARD security add-ons for channel encryption and digital rights management (DRM). In 1996, Congress ordered the FCC to establish rules to promote the development of third-party cable STBs, with regulations requiring that the cable industry develop standards that would enable third-party devices to interoperate with the incumbents' networks and unscramble channels for authorised users. The CableCARD was the fruit of that.
Late last year however, the FCC decided to remake STB rules, and Chairman Tom Wheeler has submitted a proposal to make set-top content and data available to third parties (for instance, for smart TVs), in order to eliminate the need for STBs at all. Detractors say that eliminating the requirement for CableCARD-enabled STBs threatens content protections and advertising integrity, and would for a re-architecting of networks — something the FCC said would not happen.
TiVo has also argued that dropping the ban would unfairly disadvantage third-party STBs like its Roamio box. TiVo senior VP and general counsel Matthew Zinn said that it would "undermine the retail market for set-top boxes and deprive consumers of choice”.
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