FCC: Free apps for pay-TV customers

Millions of Americans fork over, on average, more than $230 a year to rent set-top boxes from cable and other pay-television providers. Thursday, the government’s top TV regulator revealed its final proposal to loosen the cable industry’s tight grip on those devices.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the proposal would require major cable and satellite operators to develop free apps that customers can use to access the companies’ content through alternative devices such as Apple TV or Amazon’s Fire TV.

Under the plan, paytelevision providers such as Comcast and Verizon would also have to provide a way for consumers to search for the content that they want, all in one place. In other words, the search results could include the broadcast stations and streaming services that offer the content. year to 7 percent, down from 7.7 percent in 2013, according to a new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That percentage has been dropping since it peaked at 8.2 percent in 2011 and is now the lowest it’s been since the survey was started in 2009.

Consumers were defined as being unbanked if no one in their household had a bank account. The FDIC also looked at the underbanked, meaning someone in the household had a bank account, but that the person still turned to nontraditional, and sometimes costly, financial services, such as payday loans, pawn shops or auto title loans.

About one in five consumers said they were underbanked last year, about the same as in 2013. the New York-based company said revenue dropped 6.6 percent to $913.9 million last quarter. The average of two analysts’ estimates was $958.5 million.

The task of coping with that trend will largely fall to Riggio, 75, who’s taking back some day-to-day management duties after ousting CEO Ron Boire last month.

SNAPSHOTS

Recall expands: Ford on Thursday dropped its 2016 profit forecast by $600 million after expanding an existing door latch recall to 1.5 million additional vehicles. The recall was issued because the pawl spring tab in the vehicle’s side door latch could break, preventing the door from closing. Owners who want to know if their vehicle is included can go to ford.com.

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