Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech Freedom,

your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate. I'm Evan Schwarzen

Schwarzenbber, your host. On today's show, set-top boxes or cable boxes? The FCC looks to

open up the market for set top boxes.

Joining me to discuss this is Mariah Mensa, a recent graduate of Howard University School of Law.

Mariah, thanks for joining the show again. Hi, happy to be here. So most Americans have more

than one way of getting television, whether it's through a satellite company like a DirecTV

or DISH or a cable company like Comcast or Fiber company like Verizon Fios.

And while they have multiple choices and how they get video, generally they have to get that

video through a set-top box.

You might refer to as a cable box if you get it through a cable company,

and you've got to rent that. And that's generally about $15 to $20 a month. And, you know,

it can be expensive. They can be clunky and they can be annoying. But, you know, that's how you

get your video. And the FCC is looking to disrupt this market by requiring that companies

like DISH and AT&T alter their equipment to allow third parties, companies

maybe like Amazon or Google, to create set-top boxes that you could then use with your AT&T or DISH service.

Sounds good in theory, more choices for consumers, right?

But will it actually help consumers?

And is this move only prolonging the inevitable death of the cable box? So, Mariah, why is the FCC doing? Like, what do you

think the purpose here of this order is? So I think the purpose here is partially because the FCC is

operating under the impression that they have a congressional

mandate to do something to open up the set-top box market, as in something to provide greater

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