Over the dissents of Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, the FCC on Feb. 18 issued proposals for requiring multichannel video programming distributors to give third-party device manufacturers and potentially app developers access to subscribers' content and programming information. The 66-page notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and memorandum opinion and order released in Media Bureau docket 16-42 and Cable Service docket 97-80 is aimed at adopting new rules to implement section 629 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. That provision directs the FCC to ensure a commercial market for equipment to access multichannel video programming, in the wake of the 2014 STELAR Act that eliminated the FCC's ban on integrated security in cable TV operators' own set-top boxes.
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