WASHINGTON — President Obama will announce on Friday his support for opening the market for cable set-top boxes, singling out the devices in millions of homes as a clunky and outdated symbol of corporate power over consumers as he introduces a broad federal effort to increase competition.
In an unusual step, Mr. Obama will weigh in personally on a pending proposal at the Federal Communications Commission, filing comments that encourage it to loosen cable companies' grip on the boxes. And he will sign an executive order calling on every federal agency to send him proposals within 60 days for steps they can take to promote competition in a range of industries and better protect consumers.
The F.C.C. proposal would allow subscribers to choose and purchase the devices they use to view television programming, instead of leasing the boxes from their cable companies at an average annual cost of $ 231. The F.C.C. approved the proposal in February, starting a 60-day comment period that will soon close.
"This just seemed like a clear-cut case where you could get a win for consumers and a win for innovation," said Jason Furman, the chairman of Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. The president, he added, wanted to use the set-top box issue "as an example to lend greater lift" to his push to get federal agencies to propose new rules to create more competition in their areas.
The announcements represent the latest moves by Mr. Obama to push back against the forces of consolidation and monopoly and to shift power away from large corporations in an array of industries.
The president's aides gave no examples of the kinds of rules Mr. Obama would like to see agencies propose in response to the executive order. Mr. Furman said White House officials had already notified the agencies of the coming call for recommendations, so some of the regulations were already underway.
Among the supporters of the set-top box proposal are technology giants like Google, Amazon and Apple, which are eager to establish a broader foothold in the TV market. The cable industry is opposed, calling it a giveaway to wealthy tech companies.
In a blog post, Mr. Furman and Jeffrey D. Zients, the director of the National Economic Council, called the set-top box rule the "mascot" for Mr. Obama's new pro-competition executive order.
They compared the devices to the bare-bones telephones that consumers once had to rent from telephone companies as a condition of service and noted that when the F.C.C. moved in the 1980s to open the industry to competition, the price, styles and functionality of telephones improved.
"Instead of spending nearly $ 1,000 over four years on a set of behind-the-times boxes, American families will have options to own a device for much less money that will integrate everything they want — including their cable or satellite content, as well as online streaming apps — in one, easier-to-use gadget," Mr. Furman and Mr. Zients wrote.
The push to be announced on Friday is in line with Mr. Obama's promise in his State of the Union address this year to find ways to help workers, small businesses and entrepreneurs. In a report issued on Friday, the Council of Economic Advisers said that competition was declining in many industries and argued that the decrease was having a detrimental effect on consumers and workers.
Mr. Obama has acted several times to combat the trend, including signing legislation to unlock cellphones, which allows consumers to switch providers while keeping the same device.
The Department of Transportation has pressed airports to open slots to more airlines, while the F.C.C. adopted rules for auctioning wireless spectrum intended to allow smaller players more opportunities to participate.
The president weighed in personally in 2014 on the F.C.C.'s net neutrality rules. He argued that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility, and he pressed for strict rules to prevent broadband companies from blocking or intentionally slowing legal content and from allowing content providers to pay for a fast lane to reach consumers. The rules were released last year.
The report released on Friday listed several areas that the president's advisers believe could be ripe for pro-competition regulations, including so-called Big Data, the consumer information that includes purchasing habits and Internet browsing histories; price transparency; and common ownership of stock by large institutional investors.
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