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FCC takes up studios' VOD petition - June 6, 2008

Someone in Hollywood must be in an awful hurry to get on with offering movies via high-def video-on-demand in advance of their DVD and Blu-ray Disc release. In response to a petition filed last month by the MPAA seeking a waiver of certain rules governing the use of output controls on set-top boxes the FCC has granted the studios' request for expedited review of the request. And I do mean expedited.

On Thursday, the FCC issued a public notice setting June 25 as the deadline for filing comments in support or opposition to petition. The MPAA is then given until July 7 to reply to the comments. No word on how long it would take the commission to then render a decision. (In a delightful touch of Washington insider-ism, the notice reminds respondents that all comments filed with the FCC should include indication that they have also been served on counsel for the petitioner. The MPAA's chosen counsel? Former FCC commissioner Kathleen Abernathy.)

In its original petition, the MPAA said a waiver of the rules restricting the use of selective output controls would the studios to offer "high-value, high-definition digital movies to consumers for enjoyment in their homes sometime prior to release on prerecorded media such as DVD." The waiver is needed, the MPAA said, to allow cable and satellite operators to turn off the unprotected analog outputs on subscribers set-top boxes during the broadcasts.

"In order to make this extremely high-value content available for in-home viewing at such an early window, protections are necessary to deter unauthorized copying or redistribution of the content," the petition said.

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