Citing the inability of all relevant industries to reach a consensus, the FCC in 2001 issued its own set of DTV nomenclature so consumers can judge a product's level of interoperability with cable TV signals and equipment. The FCC specified three categories for cable-ready DTVs, including:

• Digital Cable Ready 1 - Devices receiving analog, digital basic and digital premium cable programming.
• Digital Cable Ready 2 - Adds the IEEE-1394 digital interface connector to digital cable-ready devices
• Digital Cable Ready 3 - DTV sets that decode and display digital cable along with DTV broadcasts and interactive services, although no IEEE-1394 connector is specified.

Cable Reaches Digital Carriage Agreement with Public TV
In early 2005, the nearly 400 public television stations across the country reached an agreement with NCTA and the Association of Public TV Stations to get digital cable carriage, including high-definition and multicast channels. The agreement was for ten years, with ten-year renewals. Cable operators will carry as many as four multicast channels of stations and their HD content after the transition. During the transition, at least one public TV station in a market would get carriage. The agreement opened the possibility that many public TV stations voluntarily will return their analog spectrum well before any mandated hard cut-off date.    

Cable Uses Bundled Service Approach
To better compete with satellite TV providers and telephone companies that are adding video service packages, many cable operators this year will add set-top boxes that incorporate multiple HDTV-capable tuners, large hard disc drives, easy-to-navigate graphical user interfaces, digital cable modems and voice-over-IP telephony services. The equipment will enable subscribers to perform multiple tasks using easy-to-navigate menus on their connected TV screens. Cable operators hope subscribers find the convenience of all-in-one services and equipment compelling enough to drop telephone and digital satellite services.

Analog Cut-Off May Not Help Cable
According to CEA research, three-quarters of antenna-only households in 2005 were willing to take some voluntary action to continue receiving TV after analog broadcasting ends. Only nine percent of surveyed households said they would start subscribing to cable or satellite once analog TV is shut off. Of the other households in the survey, 42 percent said they would buy a $60 set-top converter and 22 percent indicated they would buy a new TV capable of receiving DTV signals.

Twenty-two percent said they would do nothing, since they don't use the TV to receive off-air broadcasts. According to CEA forecasts, Americans will buy approximately 152.3 million DTV tuners in integrated DTV sets or in set-top boxes through 2009.