FORUM
2004 to Be Held at The Fairmont in Washington, DC
FORUM,
CTPAA's annual, educational conference dedicated to the issues
facing public affairs professionals, will be in the nation's
capital for the fourth consecutive year. The conference will be
held March 21 to 24, 2004, at The Fairmont Washington, DC. The
hotel is located in the "west end" of downtown Washington,
convenient to the Connecticut Avenue business district and just
a few blocks from Georgetown.
"As the national seat of government,
Washington contains the greatest concentration of policy makers
who oversee our industry," said Bob Morrison, CTPAA president
and executive director, VHI Save the Music Foundation. "By
meeting in DC, CTPAA is able to attract members of the
Administration, Congressional leaders and FCC officials to
comment on topical policy issues facing cable. It also provides
an opportunity for cable, on a national level, to highlight the
positive community impact of our industry."
The FORUM 2004 co-chairs, who produce
and are responsible for the meeting agenda, are Eric Hollreiser,
senior vice president, media relations, ABC Cable Network Group,
and Anita Lamont, director, communications, Midwest Division
Operations, Charter Communications.
CTPAA will announce the winners of
the 2004 Beacon Awards, honoring excellence in public affairs
throughout the cable industry, during a gala ceremony and dinner
on Tuesday, March 23, 2004, at FORUM. The 2004 Beacon co-chairs
are Mark Hotz, senior vice president of marketing, NBC Cable
Networks, and Stacy Schmitt, director of public affairs, Time
Warner Cable/Waco Division.
New
Cable Industry Economic Impact Report
Released
A
multi-billion dollar investment in the development and
distribution of broadband content and services in the United
States has led to a healthy cable industry that accounts for
more than $173 billion in gross economic output according to a
new study sponsored by Daniels & Associates, the
Denver-based media and telecommunications mergers &
acquisitions specialist. This economic impact analysis explores
cable's growth since 1990 and describes the industry's major
contributions to the U.S. economy.
While the report provides a
national snapshot of the cable industry's economic impact, it
can serve as a great local public affairs outreach tool. In
addition to being a reference document full of statistics about
the industry, it can be used to support local efforts that
quantify cable's impact.
Titled "Reinvesting
in America: An Analysis of the Cable Industry's Impact on the
U.S. Economy",
the report's highlights include:
- Direct and indirect employment
attributable to the cable industry has more than doubled to
1.1 million in 2002, increasing by more than 570,000 jobs
since 1990. This growth amounts to nearly three percent of all
net new jobs created by the U.S. economy over this 12-year
period.
- During the same time - from 1990
to 2002 - direct and linked employment (jobs generated by
cable operators and their immediate suppliers of goods and
services) attributable to the cable industry nearly doubled,
growing from 170,00 employees in 1990 to 307,000 in
2002.
- More than $42 billion flowed
directly to cable industry suppliers in 2002, including
employee wages - which accounted for 21 percent of that figure
- and other costs such as the purchase of goods and services,
utilities, transportation, construction and other
miscellaneous items.
The study attributes much of the cable
industry's growth to passage of the Telecommunications Act of
1996. This Act sparked a $75-billion industry-wide
infrastructure upgrade that has resulted in the creation and
deployment of new consumer services such as digital cable,
high-speed Internet, competitive local telephone service,
video-on-demand and high-definition television.
Cable
Positive Awards $2,000 to Howard University Students
Cable
Positive recently awarded Howard University students Allison
Caviness and Melissa McClinton with a $2,000 grant to
produce a 30 second public service announcement (PSA) promoting
HIV/AIDS awareness to young people. This grant is part of Cable
Positive's initiative Positive Generation, which allows
college students of color to have a voice on HIV and AIDS
through the production of PSA's. The program at Howard
University is funded by The Comcast Foundation.
The PSA features Metro TeenAIDS, a
youth AIDS service organization serving the metro Washington,
DC, area, and includes their toll free number and Web site
enabling viewers to learn more about HIV/AIDS and where they can
be tested for HIV in Washington, DC. It was scheduled to run 360
times on Comcast's District of Columbia cable system on channels
including BET, MTV, Lifetime, and ESPN in support of Cable
Positive's National HIV Testing Day, June 27, campaign to
promote HIV testing to Americans.
"We hope that this PSA will help
engage young people to be more active in the fight against
HIV/AIDS and help them realize that it can happen to them," said
Caviness.
Cable Positive gave Howard University
students the opportunity to submit a proposal for a HIV/AIDS
related PSA. Students were asked to submit a treatment,
storyboard, timeline and budget. In February, a group of cable
industry public affairs executives from MTV, BET, and Comcast
selected Caviness and McClinton's proposal from a pool of
candidates. For more information, contact Thomas Dima at thomas@cablepositive.org.
The
History Channel and Comcast Sponsor Back To The Future With The
Founding Fathers
The History Channel and Comcast sponsored the event Back
to the Future with the Founding Fathers to help celebrate the
National Constitution Center Grand Opening on July 4. The
National Constitution Center, located on Philadelphia's
Independence Mall, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization established by Congress in 1988 to increase
understanding of the U.S. Constitution and its relevance to the
daily lives of Americans.
Ben Franklin, George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison joined constitutional
scholars Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School and Anita
Allen-Castellitto of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
to discuss the Constitution and its ability to withstand the
test of time. The Honorable Edward Becker, Chief Justice of the
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, moderated the discussion.
Back to the Future with the Founding Fathers was part of the
All-American Evening on the Mall on July 2.
The History Channel also produced and
donated thirteen, original, four-minute videos introducing the
different stages of the Constitution's development. Written and
produced to take the complex subject of the Constitution and
make it accessible to the public without jeopardizing the depth
of its history, the videos will become a permanent exhibit at
the National Constitution Center. The History Channel's
participation is part of Save Our History, the network's
national campaign for historic preservation and education.
Thank
You 2003 Corporate Members!
For information on how your organization can
join CTPAA as a corporate member in 2004, please contact Steve
Jones at sjones@ctpaa.org or at
202/775-1083. For membership details, go to http://www.magnetmail.net/Actions/linktosite.cfm?message_id=14010&user_id=CTPPA&recipient_id=5484063&site=http://www.ctpaa.org/mcorp.shtml.
2003 Golden
Benefactors
A&E Networks
Advance/Newhouse Communications
Cablevision Systems
Corporation
Charter
Communications
Comcast Cable
Communications
Cox
Communications
NBC Cable
Networks
Rainbow Media
Holdings
Time Warner Cable
Turner Broadcasting
System, Inc
2003
Benefactors
ABC Cable Networks Group
ESPN
Lifetime Television
MTV Networks
TechTV
The Weather
Channel
2003 Friends &
Associates
Adelphia
CableLabs
Cable
Telecommunications Association of New York
Comedy Central
Court TV
C-SPAN
Networks
Discovery Networks
Florida Cable
Telecommunications Association
Game Show Network
Hallmark Channel
HBO
Indiana Cable
Telecommunications Association
Insight Communications
International Channel
Midcontinent Communications
Motorola, Broadband Communications Sector
Ohio Cable Telecommunications
Association
Oxygen Media
Scientific-Atlanta
Scripps Networks
Showtime Networks
Texas Cable &
Telecommunications Association
Terayon Communication
Systems
