Obama backs FCC set-top box proposal

President Obama is backing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan to open up the market for set-top television boxes on Friday, according to White House officials.

In a blog post, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman and Jeff Zients, the director of the National Economic Council, said that “today the President announced that his Administration is calling on the FCC to open up set-top cable boxes to competition.” Obama is expected to file comments with the FCC Friday supporting the item.

{mosads}The draft rules, which the FCC voted to formally consider earlier this year, would require video providers like Comcast to make their video feeds and other information available to third-party companies that want to make boxes consumers could use to access the programming. Companies like Google and Tivo have backed reforms to the market.

Opponents say that that proposal, should it be codified by a second commission vote, would hurt privacy and minority programmers. But supporters say that it will give consumers more choices and save them money.

“Instead of spending nearly $1,000 over four years to lease a set of behind-the-times boxes, American families will have options to own a device for much less money that will integrate everything they want — including their cable or satellite content, as well as online streaming apps — in one, easier-to-use gadget,” said Furman and Zients in their blog post.

Obama also signed an executive order asking federal agencies for input on what they could do to promote competition.

“In many ways, the set-top box is the mascot for a new initiative we’re launching today,” the president’s aides said. “That box is a stand-in for what happens when you don’t have the choice to go elsewhere—for all the parts of our economy where competition could do more.”

Democratic lawmakers are split on the set-top box reforms — adding an interesting political dimension to Obama’s endorsement. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the ranking member of the Commerce Committee, has said that new rules shouldn’t harm those already in the video distribution market. And other lawmakers have said they are concerned about how the proposal could impact minority programmers. Other Democrats are supportive of the plan.

This is not the first time Obama has weighed in on an FCC action under Wheeler. In 2014, he backed strong rules to ensure net neutrality, the idea that all traffic on the internet should receive equal treatment. Wheeler eventually chose to move forward with aggressive rules that were approved in February of last year.

His endorsement of the set-top box changes are sure to anger industry and bring charges that Obama is meddling with an independent regulatory agency. The head of cable group NCTA said Friday that the association was “disappointed that White House political advisers are choosing to inject politics and inflammatory rhetoric into a regulatory proceeding by what is supposed to be an independent agency.”