CableCARD era at Comcast is drawing to a close

Comcast has begun to close the door on the CableCARD, the separable security module for digital set-tops and some digital cable-ready televisions that was first mandated by the FCC about 17 years ago.

Comcast confirmed that it is alerting customers that it will no longer provide new CableCARDs to new or existing customers starting October 24, 2024. DSLReports made note of the alert in this recent post. Charter Communications rendered a similar decision on the CableCARD in 2022.

Moving forward, Comcast will supply any affected pay-TV customers with IP-capable devices and waive lease fees for a year. Those customers are also being directed to retail streaming platforms that support the Xfinity Stream app, which underpins the operator's multichannel pay-TV service. Devices that support Xfinity Stream include iOS and Android mobile devices (plus casting to TVs), Roku players and Roku TVs, Apple TV boxes, Xfinity Flex boxes, Amazon Fire TV devices, and smart TVs from LG, Samsung and Xumo, the Comcast-Charter streaming joint venture.

Comcast, which is in the midst of "mid-split" network upgrades that dedicate more spectrum to the broadband upstream, will no longer replace non-functioning CableCARDs as of the deadline.

However, CableCARDs in the field today will continue to work after the October 24 deadline. Comcast did not say how many CableCARDs are still in use in its cable systems, but it's likely that the vast majority of them are deployed inside Comcast supplied set-top boxes.

Related:The CableCARD's 'Greatest Hits'

There are also some TiVo boxes that customers purchased at retail which use CableCARDs, some PC-TVs with CableCARD tuners, and possibly a small number of HD televisions that contain CableCARD slots in use today. All will continue to operate on the Comcast network after October 24.

QAM before the storm

But it's clear that Comcast is ready to move on from the CableCARD amid an ongoing IP video transition that could set the stage for the operator to someday shut down its QAM video infrastructure and redeploy that spectrum toward IP-based services. Mediacom Communications has already shut down its QAM video infrastructure, a move that reclaimed up to 400MHz of spectrum that could be directed toward DOCSIS capacity.

Other operators, including Cable One, Midco, Cox Communications and WideOpenWest, plan to phase out their QAM video infrastructures in the months and years to come. Meanwhile, some smaller operators have exited the video business altogether, ceding it to third-party options such as YouTube TV.

Related:Doomsday clock ticks for millions of 'PowerKEY' set-tops

And it's been clear that legacy QAM video platforms have been reaching the end of road in other ways.

Platforms hailing back to the Motorola/Scientific-Atlanta (S-A) digital cable duopoly are facing internal clock "time-out" issues that will render older devices inoperable without upgrades, workarounds or device switch-outs. Cable set-tops that use the original S-A "PowerKEY" conditional access system will go on the blink this November if required changes to boxes and the headend systems aren't implemented. CommScope has issued a video headend software patch to remedy an internal clock problem that's slated to come to a head in January 2025.

That scenario has also spawned some new video options for cable operators. Last week, execs with E.W. Scripps revealed plans to offer the company's new Tablo platform to cable operators, enabling a streaming/broadcast TV combo that will deliver a lineup of free, over-the-air TV channels, FAST (free, ad-supported streaming television) channels, and a skinny, entertainment-focused pay-TV package.

CableCARD never delivered on retail promise

Comcast's decision heaps another bucket of sand on the CableCARD, a module that separates the security function of QAM-based digital cable boxes and a select number of digital cable-ready TVs.

Related:CommScope releases headend patch to keep old cable set-tops alive

A CableCARD security module based on the PowerKey conditional access system. (Source: Petiatil/Wikimedia Commons)

Hoping to open up a competitive retail market for cable video devices, the FCC mandated that US cable operators (save for some waivers) use CableCARDs in their own set-tops starting in July 2007. The effort, which added costs to the devices, aimed to spark a significant retail market for digital cable devices that fell well short of its intended goal. For example, the FCC reported that there were just 456,000 CableCARDs installed in retail navigation devices at the end of the first quarter of 2020 among the four largest US cable operators of the time, down from 528,000 some three years earlier.

Recognizing that the rise of IP-based pay-TV platforms and the increased use of video apps for multichannel video services had rendered the CableCARD largely obsolete (some might say the CableCARD was already obsolete in 2007), the FCC terminated its separable security mandate in September 2020. Regulating large US operators to support and continue the deployment of CableCARD modules "no longer serve a useful purpose and thus are no longer necessary," the FCC said at the time.

For a more extensive view of the troubled history of the CableCARD, including the "tru2way" mess, please see Light Reading's take on the CableCARD's "Greatest Hits."