National Cable & Telecommunications Association

Type	Trade Organization
Headquarters	25 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, DC 20001
Website	http://www.ncta.com

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation’s cable households and more than 200 cable program networks, as well as equipment suppliers and providers of other services to the cable industry. Officially founded in 1952, NCTA's primary mission is to provide its members with a strong national presence by providing a single, unified voice on issues affecting the cable and telecommunications industry.

From its inception, NCTA has promoted the growth of the cable industry while managing the industry’s regulatory and legislative priorities. The cable industry is the nation’s largest broadband provider of high speed Internet access after investing $100 billion over 10 years to build a two-way interactive network with fiber optic technology. Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art digital telephone service more than 15 million American consumers.

Contents 1 History 2 Leadership 3 The Cable Show 4 CableACE Awards 5 External links 6 References

[edit] History

NCTA first was organized as the National Community Television Council in September 1951, when a small group of community antenna (CATV) operators met at a hotel in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They gathered in response to concern over the Internal Revenue Service's attempts to impose an 8% excise tax on their operations. These business people quickly became aware of other common interests, leading to a series of organizational meetings during September and October 1951 and January 1952. In January 1952, the organization's name officially was changed to National Community Television Association.

NCTA's growth kept pace with the rapidly expanding CATV industry. Within its first year, nearly 40 CATV systems joined the organization. Membership then grew into hundreds by the end of the 1950s and thousands by the end of the 1960s. In the 1960s, the term "Community Antenna Television (CATV)" gave way to the term "cable," reflecting the industry's expanded categories of service – including local news, weather information, and channels of pay television. Accordingly, in 1968, NCTA – while retaining its acronym – changed its official name for the first time, to "National Cable Television Association."

Following the introduction of global telecommunication satellites, the late 1970s and 1980s saw initial explosive growth in cable content, as entrepreneurs gave birth to such networks as CNN, ESPN, MTV, BET, TBS, USA, Discovery, Lifetime, C-SPAN, and eventually hundreds of other channels. During this period, virtually all of the nation’s major programming services also joined NCTA, providing a new dimension to the organization’s representation of cable interests in Washington.

The mid-1990’s marked the beginning of cable’s transformation from a one-way video provider to a much broader interactive telecommunications solution. By 2006, cable operators had largely completed a national fiber optic upgrade which enables them to provide consumers a bounty of new services such as high definition television, high speed internet access, digital phone, and digital video recording.

To reflect this transformation, NCTA in 2001 – while again retaining its acronym – changed its name for the second time to the "National Cable & Telecommunications Association.”^[1]

Today, NCTA remains headquartered in Washington, D.C. The association also provides management oversight of two non-profit organizations: Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry’s education foundation, and The Walter Kaitz Foundation, which promotes diversity in cable’s workforce, supplier chain, content, and marketing.

[edit] Leadership

NCTA is governed by a Board of Directors. The current (October 2008) Chairman of the Board of Directors is Decker Anstrom of Landmark Communications.^[2]

The current President & CEO of NCTA is Kyle McSlarrow, a position he has held since March 2005. ^[3]

Past NCTA presidents include: Robert Sachs, Decker Anstrom, Jim Mooney, Tom Wheeler and Bob Schmidt.^[4]

[edit] The Cable Show

NCTA is host to The Cable Show (formerly The National Show), the largest annual cable and telecommunications convention and trade show in the United States.

During The Cable Show, the Vanguard Awards are presented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Award winners are nominated by the NCTA membership and selected by an Awards Committee composed of members from NCTA Board of Directors as well as former award winners.^[5]

[edit] CableACE Awards

From 1978 through 1997, NCTA sponsored the CableACE Award to honor excellence in American cable television programming. It was a counterpart to the Emmy which previously did not recognize cable programming. After 1997, the Emmys included cable television programming, making the CableACEs obsolete.

[edit] External links

• National Cable & Telecommunications Association
• Cable in the Classroom
• The Walter Kaitz Foundation
• The Cable Show 2010 (NCTA's annual cable and telecommunications industry trade show)

[edit] References

1. ^ NCTA Name Change[1]
2. ^ Decker Anstrom, Tom Rutledge, Bob Miron, Pat Esser to Lead National Cable & Telecommunications Association[2]
3. ^ McSlarrow, Rehr Quietly Extend Contracts [3]
4. ^ NCTA's Mr. Right[4]
5. ^ CABLE SHOW: The 2008 Vanguard Awards[5]