Israel's Boxee reaches pact with Comcast on streaming

The agreement allays fears raised by proposals to encrypt cable programming.

Although Israeli start-up Boxee Inc. has been facing heavy pressure from US cable companies, it has refused to give up and has chalked up small victories as it fits into the US television market.

Now it has won a big victory: in a joint statement to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boxee and Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMSCA), the largest cable television provider in the US, announced that they reached agreement on the free reception of content channels via Boxee's media streaming device, the Boxee Box.

In early 2012, Boxee launched a designated USB standard for its streamer, which allows users to view television channels broadcast over the air. However, in the US cable companies' fight against piracy, Comcast lobbied for FCC rules that would allow it and other cable companies to encrypt broadcasts so that they would only be available via the companies' converters. They said that the measure was necessary to fight piracy.

Boxee is affected by this proposal because it offers an alternative platform to cable, which enables the consumption of television content without a commitment, and the encryption of broadcasts would prevent Boxee from offering its users access to a large supply of television content. In other words, the proposed rule posed a direct threat to the product that Boxee is developing.

Under the agreement with Comcast, which now awaits for FCC approval, Boxee can receive the basic cable package from encrypted Comcast broadcasts using DLNA technology to share content via a special analog-to-cable converter attached to the Boxee Box. Shortly afterwards, cable companies will offer a way to decrypt basic-cable signals using software.

The broadcasts will still be encrypted in order to provide the level of security that Comcast wants, while providing access to broadcasts by the Boxee Box.

Boxee CEO Avner Ronen told "Bloomberg", "Sitting down at a table is much more productive than exchanging views in filings with the FCC. “The proposed solution addresses both the concerns of the cable companies and the concerns that we had."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 2, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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