Studios take steps toward an early high-def VOD window

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 5/15/2008

MAY 15 | FROM CONTENT AGENDA: WASHINGTON—The major studios are working with cable and satellite operators to offer high-definition movies by video-on-demand shortly after their theatrical debut and well ahead of their release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

News of the studios’ plans is contained in a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission on March 9 by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. The petition seeks a waiver from FCC regulations barring cable and satellite operators from using selectable output controls (SOC) on set-top boxes to turn off unprotected analog connections to a TV set.

The petition says the waiver is necessary so that the “high-value” high-def content can be limited exclusively to digital outputs protected by anti-copying encryption.

The FCC barred the use of output controls in 2003 to prevent cable operators from disadvantaging analog subscribers.

Read the full story on ContentAgenda.com.

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