INCOMPAS, whose members include Netflix, said Tuesday the video streamer had struck a deal with Comcast to make Netflix available via the cable operator's video navigation platform, a move Comcast confirmed.

"Comcast and Netflix have reached an agreement to incorporate Netflix into X1, providing seamless access to the great content offered by both companies" the companies said in a joint statement. "We have much work to do before the service will be available to consumers later this year. We'll provide more details at that time."

RELATED: Comcast, Netflix Forge a Stronger Streaming Connection

Video providers have begun to see the benefit of making it easier for their customers to access streamed content, including Netflix. Pay-TV firms using TiVo equipment have already offered OTT services integrated into their offerings. Cable-stock analysts have been pushing them to do more, seeing it as a retention incentive.

But access to over-the-top content in competition to cable fare is a big concern in Washington these days and is driving the debate over the FCC's proposal to make sure that third parties can wed over-the-top with traditional video services. 

“From open Internet to interconnection policies, we advocated for a foundation that enables over-the-top content and traditional video to grow together, rather than apart," said INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering. "These smart policies, led and adopted by the FCC, have been hard fought victories that have knocked down many walls and are good for competition, consumers and free markets."

Pickering did not give Comcast a shout out for the deal, least in the statement: “Consumers are hungry for new content, and fresh creative voices. Netflix is a trailblazer that has opened doors to other streamers, and we encourage and support policies that help make search, discovery and access to all over-the-top content easier.”

Public Knowledge, which has been pushing for more seamless competition between traditional and new content delivery, including a big push for the FCC's proposal to make cable programming and data available to third parties, still saw some seams.

"We think that in a competitive market, consumers shouldn’t have to look to special deals between large companies like this just to access video programming from multiple sources all in one place," said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney. "A competitive market will deliver lots of video apps on many different devices."

"As a side note, it is interesting to be reminded again how important the proprietary set-top box is to Comcast. It doesn’t look like Comcast plans to 'ditch the box' any time soon."

The Consumer Video Choice Coalition (CVCC), which has been pushing for the FCC set-top proposal, joined Public Knowledge in trying to leverage the announcement.

“Yay, Comcast customers can now watch Netflix! Now what’s wrong with unlocking the box and letting consumers watch the rest of the Internet as well?," the coalition said in a statement. "Comcast once again proves consumer advocates’ point; consumers are hungry for new Internet streaming content and don’t want a gatekeeper box or gatekeeper app telling them what they can and can’t watch.

“Blocking Internet streaming content is bad for consumers, content creators and innovation. It’s time for the FCC to unleash competition, and give consumers to power to watch, organize and discover the content they love on the device they choose.”

RELATED: Netflix, CW Sign Exclusive Deal

The FCC is getting some more concerned looks from Capitol Hill over the privacy implications of its set-top proposal.

In a letter dated June 7, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) said that while he supported ensuring consumer choice in set-tops, that should not come at the expense of undermining consumer privacy protections. He is the latest in a string of Senate Democrats with various concerns about those privacy issues, including Judiciary ranking member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

One source tracking the issue put that concerned Dems figure at double-digits, with the addition of Manchin.

The FCC is proposing to make MVPDs share their content and data streams with third parties, but while MVPDs are subject to FCC privacy regs, edge providers are not, or at least not in the opinion of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The proposal suggests the FCC lacks that authority, but will require third parties to pledge to adhere to similar privacy protections.

Manchin said it was imperative that the FCC think hard about whether that approach creates a "dangerous loophole" in consumer privacy protections.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said that he is open to tweaking the proposal to make sure it protects privacy and MVPD set-top content, but he has also made it clear he does not think he can directly regulate edge provider data collection and sharing.

Count Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee among the fans of the FCC's set-top box proposal, but only if it protects MVPD content and contracts.

Leahy sent a letter to Wheeler this week (there were no co-signers), saying he supported the need for competition, though he characterized the proposal as "beginning a discussion of how best to [spur meaningful set-top competition] in today's environment."

Leahy agreed that rules were needed. He said that the "patchwork of state privacy laws and Federal Trade Commission enforcement alone are not adequate "and that consumers want the option of "breaking free" of rental boxes. but he said that should not mean fewer rights for consumers and programmers.

While the letter's overall tone was supportive, it also echoed concerns MVPDs have raised about protecting content or denying functions via the forced disaggregation.

The FCC is proposing to require MVPDs to make their set-top program and data streams available to third-party devices and apps under the theory that making that content searchable alongside over-the-top content will spur a market in devices other than MVPD rental boxes, which now claim 99% of the market.

The Senator told Wheeler he thought the "unlock the box" proposal--the FCC's brand for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on third-party navigation devices--would "put forward meaningful opportunity to increase consumer choice," but also said it needed "important clarifications."

Chief among those are that the same "rights and obligation"--that would include privacy and copyright protections--that apply to MVPDs "must extend to third-party navigation systems," whether that be statutorily, regulatorily, or via contract.

That means, says Leahy, that "a third party navigation system should not be able to do more with the content the MVPD is providing it with than the MVPD itself is able to do under contractual agreements with programmers, since doing so could have a direct impact on the ability to produce new and diverse programming."

"The same federal privacy protections and enforcement mechanisms that apply to proprietary set-top boxes today should apply to third-party navigation systems as well," he said. "Consumers should not be forced to make the false choice between proprietary set-top boxes [MVPD rental boxes] and applications that many not meet their needs, or competitive options that do but come without all the tools available to protect and enforce their privacy rights."

On the privacy front, the FCC has proposed that if third-parties do not agree to abide by the same privacy regime that the government imposes on MVPDS, that those MVPDs don’t' have to make the streams available, though MVPDs say that "trust us" approach could be hard to monitor and enforcement would be difficult and after-the-fact.

The Consumer Video Choice Coalition welcomed Leahy's support for rules.

“We applaud and commend Senator Leahy for standing up for consumers who want to unlock the box and end the cable monopoly," it said. "We agree; choice and competition, as Congress directed the FCC to implement 20 years ago, has been a long time coming. Families could save $231 per year or more if the FCC takes action. 

Get complete coverage of the FCC's set-top proposal.

Comcast, which has already slammed the FCC’s proposed set-top rules, took another swipe at them in a recent meeting with commission staffers that expanded on the MSO’s (and the cable industry’s) argument that using an apps-based approach is the best way forward.

For starters, Comcast argued in an ex parte filed May 11 that the software code it uses to manage requests for programming and data between its set-top boxes and authenticated Xfinity TV apps and where the programming is cached on the network will likewise need to be supported on third-party video devices using an app.

Comcast told the commission that “running our network code directly on third-party devices without our application was not feasible for a variety of reasons,” noting that that MVPDs use different network infrastructures and that the code that one MVPD develops for this purpose differs from the code developed by other MSOs.

Additionally, Comcast argued that code “is regularly updated to accommodate network and service changes, and corresponding changes would be required in the third-party device (or app); and that programmers and content owners require a trusted execution environment as a key element of a strong content security and content presentation regimen.”

Comcast also said its IP cable service is delivered on a unified,  cloud-to-ground, unicast basis and that the code in its app uses network management tools ensure efficient use of bandwidth -- something that, Comcast claims, would be lost under the FCC’s proposal.

Comcast also raised concerns about how programming “entitlements” (marketing and business rules)  could be impacted by the proposed rules, noting that Comcast and other MVPDs do not deliver entitlements in a standardized way, meaning that the FCC’s rules would require “significant changes” to entitlement servers and other pieces of MVPD networks.

The MSO also touted its new Xfinity TV Partner Program for retail devices, with initial work involving Roku and Samsung, explaining that it relies on HTML5 with premium media extensions  --  calling it a “widely adopted” open standard.

Comcast also attempted to address an issue raised by TiVo and others that an apps-based approach would constrain the use third-party user interfaces. Comcast countered that retail partners would still be free to develop and use their own UIs because Comcast’s HTML5-based apps would appear as an element in their  “umbrella” user interfaces alongside other apps.

Those arguments appear to have had little sway on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler.

The proposal “has gotta be done. And that’s the road we are headed down,” Wheeler said in late April. As for Comcast’s new program, Wheeler said it “is proving our point that you can take a third-party device, put set-top box functionality into it, and protect copyright and the economic ecosystem.”