Walt Disney Co., CBS Corp., 21st Century Fox, A&E Television Networks, Time Warner Inc. , Scripps Networks Interactive and Viacom Inc. jointly filed comments with the FCC late Friday to lodge their opposition to the proposal, according to the LA Times.
The FCC, in February, voted three to two along party lines to begin crafting rules intended to open up the set-top-box manufacturing market with new technology standards so that third-party companies could develop devices and apps that could decode pay-TV signals.
The move was intended to loosen the grip of the pay-TV companies -- including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and AT&T, which owns DirecTV -- on the set-top box market and development of TV navigational guides.
Consumers typically lease the set-top box from their pay-TV provider, and those fees can top $200 a year.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, introduced the rules to try to give consumers more options.
But the companies worry that tech companies that enter the TV navigation market might serve up individual TV shows to consumers, such as "Empire," "Paw Patrol" or "NCIS," rather than an entire channel of programming. That would leave the TV industry vulnerable to the same fate as the music industry after consumers began buying individual songs rather than entire albums and CDs.
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