Downloadable Conditional Access System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:42, 19 February 2007

Revision as of 14:08, 19 February 2007

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== Consumer Issues ==

Early and present adopters of cable High Definition have seen their cable bills skyrocket. The reason is two-fold. First, HD content has a price. Second, and more relevent to DCAS is because early adopters have been forced monopolistically to rent cable boxes, CableCards, and remotes from cable companies to view digital content. CableCards v1.0 if used in place of a cable boxes do reduce cable bills, by lowering rental fees. TheCableCard trade off is less functions, because current cards are one wayv2.0 will One-wayreduce cardsconsumer docost not allow for video on demandfurther, oralong paywith per view programming.providing Two2-way cards allowcommunication for VOD, PPVPPY, and programprograming schedulinginformation, etc.

On July 1, 2007 consumers will be able to purchase third pary DVRs, and TVs and view digital cable without having to rent hardware from the cable company. Increased competition gives consumers better price and products. For example, say a cable subsriber is currently paying $20/month for cable boxes/dvr/remotes. On 7/1/200707 he has the option to cut this cost, but will have to replace with something else, say a 3rd party DVR. The prior $20 cable monthly rental fee adds up to $240/year or $480 for 2 years. More likely than not, the customersubsriber will find a DVR for less than $480, and bethe bettersubsriber will obtain more features than what cable offered. Then, and here's the good part, after two years the subscriber will pocket $240 every year because he owns the box.

== See also ==