Boxee Vs Cable Companies

Cable companies are wanting to encrypt basic cable programming.

Boxee's CEO says "We looked hard to see what consumer benefits could come out of that ruling, and we couldn’t find any,"

The FCC has a fight on its hands between cable companies and Internet streaming set-top box companies such as Boxee. The cable companies are pushing the FCC to make a change to current regulation in order to allow them to encrypt basic cable programming.

Want To Cancel Your Cable In Favor Of The Web? How Cable Companies Aim To Stop You | WebProNews

To me, the most revealing piece of info in that article is:

In fact, a study out earlier this year from business advisory firm Deloitte found that as many as one-fifth of cable subscribers could drop their services this year. In addition, 9 percent of consumers have already made the move to abandon cable.

I am somewhat torn on this.

People who subscribe to internet only shouldn't be getting basic channels for free, but I like the fact that clear QAM is available.

Cablevision and I think Comcast won waivers for certain urban areas, claiming among other things that they'll reduce carbon emissions by having fewer truck rolls.

What Boxee needs to do though is quit whining and roll out a CableCARD solution. Cable companies are going to win waivers and not everywhere will be unencrypted. CableCARD solves this.