Samsung Inks Downloadable CA Pact with CableLabs

Samsung Inks Downloadable CA Pact with CableLabs

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

November 30, 2005

1 Min Read
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Samsung Electronics made a bit of history earlier today, becoming the first consumer electronics maker to license CableLabs' new downloadable conditional access technology for digital TV and set-top boxes. The license will allow Samsung to use the cable industry's new security software in an upcoming generation of two-way, cable-ready sets and other devices. CableLabs and Samsung unveiled the agreement just a few hours before CableLabs filed a proposed timetable for rolling out the new downloadable security technology with the FCC. The suggested timetable, which must be approved by the Commission, calls for all cable operators to upgrade their networks for the DCAS technology by July 2008. CableLabs also proposed a July 2009 deadline for all MSOs to support the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) software interface for OpenCable TV sets and set-top boxes. If approved by the FCC, the new DCAS system would let cable operators download conditional access software directly to digital cable set-tops and TV sets. Thus, the software approach would mimic, and ultimately replace, the hated CableCARD removable security modules, which MSOs criticize as too clunky and costly.

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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