Comcast Looks All Set to Keep Controlling Your Cable Box. Yay

Nearly a decade ago, Comcast promised liberation from the tyranny of the cable box. But today its control seems here to stay--as does big cable's control over how you consume the programming you pay for. This week, the Federal Communications Commission met for the first time under its new chairman, Ajit Pai, a Republican. The original agenda for the meeting included consideration of the agency's latest proposal--advanced under former Democratic chairman Tom Wheeler--to force cable companies to make their services a bit more open. That item disappeared from the agenda--and with it the likelihood that much of anything will change in the world of cable, at least as far as government regulation is concerned.