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May 16, 2008- About ACC / Membership / FORUM / Beacon Awards Inside This Issue:
Don’t miss the Association of Cable Communicators’ (ACC) panel during The Cable Show ’08 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans on Monday, May 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in room 215. The session, “Publicity Play: Making an Impact in a Fragmented Media Age,” will feature current and former ACC board members discussing how cable communicators can leverage both electronic and old media to meet publicity and bottom line objectives. The panel will be moderated by Peter Kiley, Vice President, Affiliate Relations, C-SPAN Networks, and will also include: Annie Howell, senior vice president, communications, public affairs & talent management, Discovery Communications; Chelsye Burrows, vice president of programming publicity, Starz Entertainment; Ellen East, executive vice president, chief communications officer, Time Warner Cable; Jennifer Khoury, vice president, corporate and consumer communications, Comcast Corporation; and Ellen Kroner, senior vice president, corporate communications and marketing, Rainbow Media Holdings.
Comcast and The American Heart Association have partnered to promote understanding of the risk factors and signs of stroke by making stroke-awareness programming available through Comcast’s On Demand service. Throughout May, in recognition of Stroke Awareness Month, Comcast Digital Cable customers throughout Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia can access this special programming On Demand. The series of videos, provided by The American Heart Association, feature some of the region’s top stroke experts and community leaders discussing stroke prevention and treatment. In addition to the On Demand programming, Comcast will issue public service announcements in May advocating stroke awareness and education. Comcast will also partner with The American Heart Association on heart health initiatives throughout the year including the Heart Gala, Celebrity Golf Tournament, Heart’s Delight, Lawyers Have Heart 10K and the Start! Heart Walk. For information on the On Demand programming and other initiatives, contact Jaye Linnen at 301-625-3512 or Jaye_Linnen@cable.comcast.com.
The results of a research study conducted by the Association of Cable Communicators (ACC) and Cision US, a leading global provider of research, reports that in 2006 the cable television industry provided close to two billion dollars in support to local communities. The study, conducted by the ACC in an effort to quantify cable’s philanthropic contribution to communities, summarizes that cable system operators and programming networks contributed a total of $1,994,794,418 to their communities during 2006, compared to $1,361,698,733 in 2004, the first year the research project was conducted. Other results show that the industry overall provided $159,302,000 in support to schools and educational institutions across the nation, an increase of 29% over the two-year period from 2004. Specifically, schools and educational institutions received the equivalent of $48,990,000 in free broadband and cable services. The cable industry also contributed another $110,312,000 in educational expenditures to schools and educational institutions. In 2006, cash and in-kind support by the cable industry to charities, non-profits and educational institutions totaled $925,236,000, an increase of 122% from 2004. Public service announcements were valued at $897,106,000 in 2006, an 11% increase from 2004. Cable industry companies also provided $8,513,000 in the value of volunteer time to community organizations. Rounding out the survey results was an additional $4,637,000 contribution of broadband services to libraries and youth centers, an increase of 231% since 2004. Data for the study was obtained by contacting executives at both cable systems and programming networks. ACC sought to quantify the cable industry’s philanthropic contribution to communities via a national questionnaire conducted from March 2007 to March 2008. Results, based on total industry subscriber figures, were obtained from 24% of programming networks and 72% of cable operators. For more information on the study, go to http://www.cablecommunicators.org/press_release.php?id=85.
ACC has released two new videos on its Web site exploring how cable communicators can talk about and work with the changing technology in the cable and media industries. The first is part of a new video series, “What the Tech: Communicating Cable’s Technology,” which helps define the changing technology for communicators. Each video will feature cable tech guru Leslie Ellis interviewing senior technology executives. Kicking off the series is Tony Werner, chief technology officer for Comcast Cable, who explains complex technology such as switched video and why cable still has the best platform in easy-to-understand language. The video can be found in the members-only area of the ACC Web site at: http://www.cablecommunicators.org/members/what_the_tech.php. ACC members will need to login to view this video. The username is the member's work email, and the password is his/her last name (all in lower case letters). The second video ACC has posted on its Web site is the latest ACC Career Connections video, excerpted from the opening general session at FORUM 2008. Titled, “A View from the Top,” it features: Rosa Gatti, svp, corporate communications and outreach, ESPN, Inc., Shirley Powell, svp, corporate communications, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., and D'Arcy Rudnay, svp of corporate communications, Comcast Corporation. These top cable communicators discuss how digital media is changing their jobs day-to-day. This video is posted on ACC’s homepage at www.cablecommunicators.org and is also located on the Career Connections page at http://www.cablecommunicators.org/resources_cccp.php. While there, check out one of the other fifteen video or written interviews with top cable communicators!
ESPN and the Ad Council are joining forces to motivate men to take their health into their own hands. The sports network and the advertising agency will launch a series of public service announcements (PSAs) designed to urge awareness about the importance of preventative medical testing for middle-aged men. The ads, based on concepts created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, focus on life-threatening illnesses and conditions including heart disease, cancer and chronic respiratory disease. The PSAs debuted last week on ESPN across television, radio, print and the Web, featuring ESPN anchors Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Tony Reali, Woody Paige, Jim Rome and Stuart Scott. The ads can be viewed at www.adcouncil.org and www.ahrq.gov/realmen.
ACC’s 4th Cable Communications Institute has been postponed until 2009. New dates have not yet been determined. The association expects the program in 2009 to be similar to what had been planned for 2008.
The Cable Channel has partnered with NCTA on “Room to Care,” a program to raise money for CableCares, cable’s umbrella charity program, during The Cable Show ’08 in New Orleans. NCTA asked its hotels to provide a “dark channel” on which to air The Cable Channel in their rooms during the conference, and in exchange, The Cable Channel offered to donate one dollar to CableCares for each room in a participating hotel. Since 20 hotels with a total of 9994 rooms signed up for the program, The Cable Channel will present a check to CableCares for $10,000 at the Battle of the Bands on the last night of the conference. The Cable Channel’s broadcast will begin on the night of Saturday, May 17 and air around the clock through Tuesday, May 20. For more information on “Room to Care,” go to http://2008.thecableshow.com/cablecares/roomtocare.aspx or contact Steve Nelson at 413-623-2221 or steve@cablechannel.com.
Be sure to visit ACC at the CableCares Booth (#2847) during The Cable Show ‘08 in New Orleans. ACC has teamed with Cable in the Classroom (CIC), the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) and Women In Cable Telecommunications (WICT) to collect books and help rebuild New Orleans area elementary school libraries. Come by the booth to drop off your books and to hear about the new upcoming programs ACC has created to serve you better. Numerous companies have already made donations for the book and video drive including AETN, Barnes & Noble, BET Networks, CSG Systems, Open TV, Book TV on C-SPAN2, Comcast, Cox-Atlanta, ESPN, Juniper Networks, SeaChange International, Discovery Communications, quobo Channel/ION Media Networks, Time Warner Media Sales and WE tv. Monetary contributions can also be made, and full classroom sets can be purchased through the CableCares Web site.
College-targeted mtvU has teamed up with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Poz Magazine to create a Web-based game designed to spark frank discussion about HIV and AIDS. The basic concept for the game, titled “Pos or Not,” was developed by college students who participated in a nationwide “Change the Course of HIV Challenge.” The contest asked students to propose a game that would creatively engage people to help fight the spread of the disease. Players of the game are asked to guess whether individuals shown on the screen are HIV positive or negative. Afterward, the correct answer is revealed and additional information is provided about how the disease has affected the person’s life. The site also includes information on safe sex practices and gives locations for HIV testing. To promote the game, mtvU has enlisted the aid of celebrities including hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, band Fall Out Boy and actress Alyssa Milano by asking them to send the game to their family and friends. For more information on the initiative and to play the game, go to www.posornot.com.
Cisco hosted an innovative event on Monday, May 12, linking high school freshmen from the Gwinnett School for Math, Science and Technology in Atlanta with freshman students in Bangalore, India. Both classes had been reading “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty First Century,” by Thomas L. Friedman, and comparing notes on the book via blogging and chatting on Web forums. However, for the first time ever, the students discussed the book face-to-face for two hours on Monday via Cisco Telepresence.
Join and support ACC by becoming a corporate member. For more information on how your organization can join ACC as a corporate member, please contact Steve Jones at sjones@cablecommunicators.org or 202-222-2373. For membership details, go to http://www.cablecommunicators.org/cmember.php. Golden Benefactors Benefactors Friends & Associates PO Box 75007 Washington DC 20013 · Phone 800.210.3396 or 202.222.2370 · Fax 202.222.2371 |
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Make Sure to Attend ACC’s Panel on Publicity at The Cable Show ’08