New Ruling could be interesting

[mdovell]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200701101926DOWJONESDJONLINE001143_FORTUNE5.htm

Basically what this means is that they have to have boxes that aren't tied to the cable co...this could be interesting for some immediate things...

Let's say you own more than one property...you have cable in both but you only live in one at a time (summer/winter house) why should you have to pay a box rental for both? if it's different towns chances are it can be different cable co's so why shouldn't you be able to take the box from one and put it to the other as long as your a paying customer?

Now the cable co's won't like this for some other reasons...advertising for starters...demographically speaking digital cable for them is excellent since they could track what people watch and under theory send targeted advertising...let's say someone lives near a mall with a sears and a borders there could be ads sent to them over someone that doesn't (more targed advertising means they can demand more money from the advertisers..if you want to see a good example look at how infousa works)

Now if the box is no longer tied to a address it could also be used at plenty of other places...let's say you are a customer and you go to a hotel room in another state...technically you might be able to use it there. Right now I'm working with people who are constantly on the road (generally 8 weeks in a given place at a time) they might go from one part of the country to another...technically they don't have a fixed address but this could change things.

 

[hbk409]

Heres another article on the subject, looks like Cablevision got an extentsion until July 1, 2009.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/artic...1-11_18-10-17_N11401815&type=comktNews&rpc=44

 

[ItsMyLife]

Now if the box is no longer tied to a address it could also be used at plenty of other places...let's say you are a customer and you go to a hotel room in another state...technically you might be able to use it there. Right now I'm working with people who are constantly on the road (generally 8 weeks in a given place at a time) they might go from one part of the country to another...technically they don't have a fixed address but this could change things.

I don't think this is the case at all... it's simply removing the security features of the box so that a customer could go buy a box anywhere.... it doesn't mean you could use your box anywhere... you would still need proper security for the location you're in... plus signal.

It's simply meant to stop cable companies from bilking their customers with outrageous box fees opening up a potentially cheaper avenue for customers to obtain their boxes via competition.

 

[minnow]

The cable co's will find a way to recoup these potential loss of converter box fees. Something on the order of ten bucks a month to rent the card to put in the back of the customer bought box. I mean this all sounds great right now but there's no way cable is going to lose that huge revenue stream.