Bye-Bye, Set-Top Boxes?

An agreement announced Tuesday between Sony Electronics and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) may mean the end of that ubiquitous TV appendage: the cable set-top box.

The agreement is between Sony and the nation's six largest cable companies: Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Bright House Networks. Together those six companies service more than 82% of cable subscribers.

In a press release, the Edgar Tu, Sony Electronics’ Senior Vice President of TV Operations of America said:

"This marketplace agreement is good news for consumers. A national plug-and-play digital cable standard for interactive TV receivers, recorders and other products that is transferable and viable wherever you live is ideal for today’s mobile society."

To do this, Sony has committed to the tru2way cable platform introduced in January at CES by Comcast. Tru2way allows interactive cable services to be directly integrated into devices.

Sony isn’t the first TV manufacturer to sign onto tru2way. Samsung, Panasonic and LG have all signed licensing agreements to use the technology. However, the agreement signed between Sony and the cable companies involved commits everyone as follows:

As part of the agreement, the parties will adopt: the Java-based “tru2way” solution as the national interactive “plug-and-play” standard; new streamlined technology licenses; and new ways for content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, information technology companies and cable operators to cooperate in evolving the tru2way technology at Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the cable industry’s research and development consortium.

Even the government is happy. In the press release, Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), a senior Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and "one of the leading advocates in Congress for new technology and consumer freedoms" said:

"I congratulate Sony and the major cable operators for achieving consensus on a set of core principles that will speed the introduction of new two-way plug-and-play devices. With this groundbreaking compromise, these industry-leading companies and other major cable companies will ensure that consumers will have broader access to innovative competitive cable ready navigation devices from commercial retailers and will have expanded options to enjoy cable programming, including video on demand and other interactive programming options."

The scary part? The part of the release that says:

Key elements of the agreement relate to the deployment of a platform for “write once, run anywhere” applications, and to the incorporation of secure digital interfaces that protect consumers' home recording rights along with copyright owners' rights to secure their digital content.

There's that copyright owners' section that's always vague and scary.

Of course, set-top boxes aren't going anywhere anytime soon. This technology will, quite naturally, only be available on new, tru2way sets, and even those with sets with CableCARDs will be SOL. Yet another way to get us to upgrade our hardware, I guess.