One of the benefits of the FCC's often-laborious process of rulemaking is that it allows new issues to be discovered and resolved. This is what has happened in the Commission's proceeding on a seemingly-arcane issue: "encryption of the basic tier."

For many years, consumers were able to save some money on their cable bills by simply subscribing to a basic tier of programming.  For additional programming, subscribers had to pay for a set-top box provided by the cable company.  This worked fine when cable companies transmitted the programming in an analog format.  But times, and technology, are changing.  Now even the basic tier, like the more expensive ones, is going digital, and that means consumers will have to pay for a box even if they didn't have one before.  In response to these events, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new rule.  Public Knowledge applauds the FCC for proposing the rule in response to digital cable technology and protecting subscribers from being hit too hard as a result of the digital transition. 

The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

"We were disappointed to see that Fox will not let the general public have access to its TV programming on Hulu the day after shows air.  Instead, Fox will only give access to the shows to subscribers of cable and satellite services, delaying viewing for eight days for everyone else.

"This development is very unfortunate for consumers and ultimately will be self-destructive for the TV industry. Since its founding, Hulu has been a safe, legal service that allowed all consumers lawful access to TV programming.  The public, and other content providers, have taken to it in a big way.  This is the path the industry should pursue.

In today's jam-packed podcast, we discuss the AT&T/T-Mobile merger opposition filings, a new Tennessee law that makes it illegal to share your password, Lady Gaga and the future of digital music sales, Timothy B. Lee's application of Doctored Reviews' principles, and YouTube's announcement that it is embracing Creative Commons licensing and remixing.

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On today's podcast, we discuss how you could win $1,000 for explaining copyright, AT&T's pitch to the FCC as to why it should be allowed to buy T-Mobile, and update two past stories.  We also chat with Grant Schindler about his 3D-scanning iPhone app Trimensional.

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In this week's podcast, we talk about TV networks fighting to keep the Internet off of your TV, tiered pricing on mobile data networks, the latest in SMS statistics, and interview the guys from MakerBeam, an erector set for the Internet age.

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"The third screen" in the trinity of personal multimedia is on your mobile device--the first screen is the TV and the second screen is the PC. But in terms of innovation, the first screen is third. An explosion in mobile innovations has put "the Internet in your pants" (as John Gruber puts it), but most people leave the subscription TV content they pay big bucks for where they find it: in a dingy, rented set-top box. While there has been a ton of innovation designed to bring Internet video to the TV, there are relatively few options if you want to do Neat Stuff with your pay TV content.

Last Wednesday, those trying to use broadband to compete with cable video offerings (aka "over-the-top" video providers) lost the first round in a small but important case: Sky Angel v. Discovery Channel. Happily, it's only the first round. But the preliminary ruling by the FCC's Media Bureau ("MB") highlights why either Congress or the full Commission needs to focus on the question of whether the rules that protect cable competition (or, as we in the field say, "multichannel video programming distributors" or "MVPDs" -- which includes everything from traditional cable to FIOS to satellite) will also protect competition for online providers.

NBC's Olympics coverage, both on TV and online, hasn't won high marks. Business Insider writes that NBC's TV coverage is "ruining the Olympics for millions of Americans." Harsh. Its Internet coverage is also unavailable to the millions of Americans who watch TV over the air, undermining NBC's position that broadcast television remains an important part of its business.

It seems that over-the-air viewers, who probably watch more ads per hour than DVR-addicted home theater types--not to mention cord-cutters and "Cable's Lost Generation"--are harder to monetize than cable, satellite, and telco video subscription customers.