The FCC Friday said it would give cable companies at least another 45 days before taking action against eight cable companies

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/3/2000

The FCC Friday said it would give cable companies at least another 45 days before taking action against eight cable companies that warned they were unable to make available security devices that work with "hybrid" analog/digital channel-surfing boxes by the government's July 1 deadline. Requests for waivers from the rule began rolling in May 5, and the industry has long warned it would have trouble coming up with "point of deployment" security devices that work with hybrid boxes, but the FCC says it has not had enough time to evaluate the cable companies' complaints. The FCC is expected to reach a final decision on the waiver requests before the reprieve expires Aug. 14. The companies winning relief were Adelphia, AT & T, Cablevision, Charter, Cox, GCI, Insight and MediaOne.