Research Questions

Topic Two: Customer Equipment and Program Navigation Devices, Guides, and Menus

Facilities-based entrants into the subscription video marketplace require all subscribers to use a set-top box, whereas cable operators must offer some level of service to customers without such equipment. Cable operators are presently undergoing a transition from analog to digital technology. This transition offers tremendous potential benefits to consumers — including substantial improvements in the quality, quantity, and diversity of video services, as well as increased bandwidth for use in providing broadband service — but also poses challenges for some consumers who are accustomed to analog services and are concerned about the need to obtain set-top boxes. Meanwhile, as technology evolves, customers often require or demand new equipment to take advantage of improved services—in fact, they generally expect to do so. However, some consumers prefer not to make such changes, based on the additional costs that may be involved. The challenge for service providers and equipment manufacturers, then, is ensuring that innovation will occur without upsetting consumer expectations.

Questions

How should the benefits of digital services and equipment be measured and balanced against the requirements to make analog programming available into the future?
As video services become increasingly interactive in nature — including video on demand, impulse pay-per-view, switched digital video, online video gaming, and other advanced features and technologies — what is the best way for consumers to take advantage of such developments?
With regulated, cost-based rates for leasing cable set-top boxes from cable operators, is it likely that a retail market will develop whereby consumers would want to purchase increasingly costly and complex devices?
Are there alternative pricing models that would provide greater consumer benefits, wider deployment of interactive and advanced services, and more choice in the marketplace?
How does increasingly robust competition among MVPDs affect the analysis of the role of regulation or the prospects for innovation in this field?
What are the regulatory implications if consumers prefer to lease navigation devices or if the devices are bundled into other devices, such as video game consoles?
Is there any continuing basis for governmental mandates that seek to promote the development of a retail market for “plug-and-play” devices?
What is the future of devices to help people with disabilities access advanced television and television-based services?