In 1972, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established basic regulations for cable providers, including franchise and technical standards, and requiring them to register for a certificate of compliance before operation. In 1992, Congress passed the
Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that was designed to promote competition and
consumer protection in the cable television industry. The act mandated that cable providers
carry all local full-power or otherwise qualified broadcast television stations on their service. However, commercial stations have the option to opt-out of must-carry, and
require financial compensation for their carriage instead. It also required cable networks operated by cable companies to offer their carriage to competing satellite providers at reasonable rates if they used satellites as part of their distribution path. The act also narrowed the standard required for prohibiting rate regulation, requiring the provider to serve less than 30% of their franchise area, or two unaffiliated providers, serving at least 50% of the area, serve at least 15% of the market. The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 amended Section 602 (13) of the
Communications Act of 1934 to define a "Multichannel video programming distributor" (MVPD) as "a person such as, but not limited to, a cable operator, a
multichannel multipoint distribution service, a direct broadcast satellite service, or a
television receive-only satellite program distributor, who makes available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple
channels of
video programming", where a channel is defined as a "signaling path provided by a cable television system." An industry consortium known as
CableLabs officially introduced a standard known as
CableCARD in 2003 to comply with this mandate. These cards could be inserted into slots on devices such as televisions and
digital video recorders to allow access to digital cable channels without a set-top box. CableCARDs were cheaper to rent than a cable box, but the first version of the standard did not support two-way communications for interactive services such as
video on-demand or
pay-per-view facilities, thus giving the system a disadvantage over cable boxes. The integration ban was delayed until (and officially took effect on) July 1, 2007. The cable industry lobbied for the ban to be delayed, citing factors such as a lack of demand for the CableCARDs (a factor induced by the cost of devices which supported them), as well as its limitations on two-way services—especially due to the growing video on-demand market, and
switched video—a technique that enabled an increase in capacity for
high-definition channels. In 2008, the industry attempted to adopt a
middleware standard known as
tru2way, which did not require a
smart card and would support two-way services delivered directly to devices. However, tru2way had limited to no consumer adoption; despite most major providers pledging to deploy it by mid-2009,
Panasonic only sold compatible televisions in three
Comcast test markets before discontinuing them in 2010 in favor of a
set-back box. The integration ban was repealed in 2015 as a condition of the
STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014. In 2010, the FCC issued a notice of inquiry proposing a concept known as
AllVid, which involved the introduction of "adapters" that would abstract television services from the devices which deliver them, allowing the development of devices that could converge subscription television with
internet video. The FCC stated that it was "not convinced that the tru2way solution will assure the development of a commercial retail market as directed by Congress." Despite support by major firms such as
Sony and
Google (the latter having recently launched a digital media player platform known as
Google TV), AllVid was widely-opposed by the multichannel industry, as well as the
Motion Picture Association of America (who argued that copyright infringing media sources could be presented alongside legitimate options in search interfaces). Also in 2010, the U.S. government passed the
Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which requires that televisions and MVPD set-top boxes be
accessible to those who are blind and visually impaired, including support for
audio description. In 2016, the FCC, under chairman
Tom Wheeler, voted 3-2 to authorize a
notice of proposed rulemaking proposing that MVPDs be required to make their programming and other related data "be available to the creators of competitive solutions using any published, transparent format that conforms to specifications set by an independent, open standards body." The cable industry opposed this proposal, due to the lack of control they would have on the user experience (citing the possibility that third-party developers could inject their own advertising into the interface, even though the proposal specified that there would be regulations against this). In January 2017, new
Trump administration FCC commissioner
Ajit Pai (who voted against it) removed Wheeler's set-top box proposal from the FCC's items on circulation.
Linear online video providers The increasing prominence of linear
IPTV services delivered entirely over the public internet (also referred to as an
"over-the-top" television service, "linear online video provider" (OVD), or "virtual MVPD") has led to questions over whether they can be regulated by the FCC in the same way as traditional television providers. A key sticking point is the established standard in case law, that a television provider must control the entire infrastructure used to distribute their channels in order to be classified as a multichannel video programming distributor (which does not take into account the public internet). In 2010,
Discovery Communications also pulled its networks from Sky Angel, prompting the provider to file a formal complaint under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act. Sky Angel argued that Discovery was discriminating against its service, because it had allowed other providers to stream its programming online through other manners (such as TV Everywhere services). The FCC denied the complaint, but its Media Bureau acknowledged that OVDs did not formally fall under the definition of an MVPD because they did not control a physical transmission path. Sky Angel was thus ineligible for protections under the program access rules and other relevant laws, but the Media Bureau did open a discussion on whether an OVD could qualify as an MVPD. Members of the cable industry supported this historic interpretation of the law, while it was also argued that classifying streaming services as MVPDs would increase regulatory burden and discourage innovation by digital services. Another prominent case was that of
Aereo; the service allowed users to rent an antenna from a centralized location, and stream feeds of local broadcast television channels received via the antenna. By doing so, Aereo argued that its service was a
placeshifting solution that rented access to hardware, and thus did not require permission from broadcasters to retransmit their programming. However, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
American Broadcasting Cos. v. Aereo, Inc. that this violated
copyright law, as the streams still constituted an unauthorized public performance, and that despite claims to the contrary, its business model was substantially similar to that of a cable television provider (but the Court did not go as far as claiming Aereo was an MVPD). The company attempted to use this ruling in an effort to apply for a
compulsory license from the
U.S. Copyright Office instead. However, international treaties forbid the establishment of blanket licenses for streaming broadcast television stations over the internet, thus the Copyright Office ruled that this was outside of its scope. In 2019, a similar service emerged known as
Locast. Unlike Aereo, it was run by a non-profit advocacy group rather than a commercial entity, and asserts itself as being a non-profit
broadcast relay station (which are exempted under U.S. copyright law) that collected donations from users to cover the "actual and reasonable costs" of providing the relay. Locast was a free service, but periodically interrupted programming to solicit for donations until one was made. In September 2021, the service shut down after U.S District Court Judge
Louis Stanton denied a request by Locast for a
summary judgment in a similar lawsuit brought upon by the networks. Stanton described Locast's periodic interruptions as being a "charge" and "not merely a recurring gift to a charitable cause", and also singled out that the company had derived revenue double its operating expenses, and had stated that it planned to use its donations to cover expansion (which is not covered by the exemption in copyright law). == Programming ==