Now that the FCC has lifted the 1394 mandate for cable), operators may want to wait on popping the champagne corks as the “broadband happy” FCC plans to mandate an IP interface that would open the door to more over-the-top (OTT) programming. After five years of forced inclusion, cable operators in the U.S. will no longer need to have FireWire (IEEE 1394) interfaces in their HD STBs.
The implications of this are likely two fold. First, the pace of cable HD expansion in the U.S. is likely to quicken as cable operators further deploy HD STBs. Although there has already been considerable momentum in cable HD for some time, this will only hasten that trend as operators will now be able to lower the basic bill of materials for their HD STBs by a significant margin.
The second implication is slightly less clear. In place of the 1394 requirement, the FCC is now mandating that HD STBs have IP connection capability instead—facilitating the same goals of interoperability and networking with a more accepted market standard. This is certain to fuel the wave of OTT content providers that have already made their way to the SSTB, threatening to upset existing pay TV business models and value chains. So while cable operators are throwing off one challenge to their business (a useless, government imposed cost), they may be now facing a far greater one—addressing a radical shift in their role as a content aggregator and gatekeeper.
Source: DTC
In 2005, the FCC mandated that all HD STBs must have the 1394 interface, with the intent of spurring greater networking and interoperability capabilities in next generation devices through standardization. Over that time, while cable operators have for the most part complied, the marketplace decided overwhelmingly against 1394 as a next generation interface. With few CE devices making use of 1394, the interface has remained largely unused, becoming a pointless expense for cable operators more interested than ever in cutting costs. Indeed, cable operators in all other world markets dropped the interface years ago, as did other pay TV platforms, opting for HDMI only for HD interface.
