The FCC has been unsuccessful in spurring competition in the set-top box market since Congress past a law requiring changes in 1996. The current situation is exactly why we don't see some of our favorite companies making cable compatible devices -- remember when just about every electronics company made a VCR? CableCARD is a failure because, among other reasons, it is expensive to implement and requires the customer give up certain aspects of their service, like video-on-demand and guide data; on top of that it is a cab
