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Media
Center > Press Releases
For Immediate Release June 11,
2001
Contact: David Beckwith and Eric Thomas, NCTA,
312/791-6631
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REMARKS OF ROBERT SACHS, NCTA PRESIDENT AND
CEO
AT CABLE 2001
WE'RE MAKING BROADBAND
HAPPEN
Chicago, Illinois
June 11,
2001
Good morning.
I’m delighted to
welcome you to Cable 2001 and to Chicago.
And what
better place for us to hold an NCTA Convention? Chicago is
famous for its conventions. The two national political parties
have held theirs here no less than 25 times. No American city
comes close to this record.
Like political conventions,
NCTA conventions have seen a great deal of change over the
years. And so has our industry.
I remember attending my
first NCTA convention when I was a young congressional
staffer. It was 1977 in this very City. Then, if you can
believe it, the entire NCTA convention fit into the Chicago
Hilton. And the cable industry only had about 12 million
subscribers.
Never did I imagine the growth and change
that lay ahead for this industry or that I one day would be
privileged to head NCTA.
Cable 2001 is a milestone for
our industry. As Jerry told you, it marks the 50th annual NCTA
convention.
For those who are curious, NCTA’s first
convention was in Pottsville, Pennsylvania --- one of the
first communities anywhere to have cable. On June 9th, 1952,
Pottsville hosted 60 entrepreneurs who were the founding
members of the National Community TV Association, as we were
known back then.
Over the next 15 years it became
apparent that cable systems had the potential to do more, a
lot more, than just retransmit local TV stations. So in 1967
we changed our name to National Cable Television
Association.
Now here we are, in 2001, and as you can
see from the display, we’ve changed our name once again to
keep pace with the expanding scope of this industry.
So welcome to the 50th Annual NCTA Convention and
first convention of the National Cable &
Telecommunications Association.
Cable TV is still our
core business and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
In fact, the word "cable" is so established that it has become
synonymous with quality TV.
But now we’ve augmented our
quality programming with digital technology. And our industry
is at the forefront of broadband deployment. In the process,
we’ve become a 48 billion-dollar industry, with a future even
brighter than its past. We’ve come a long way from Pottsville.
As cable enters the 21st Century, we’re an industry
that is continually expanding what we deliver to
consumers.
Nowhere is that more obvious than in our
deployment of broadband technology. In addition to 80 channels
of analog video, we’re providing consumers with dozens of new
digital video networks; movies on demand; interactive
enhancements; high speed Internet; and cable
telephony.
As the theme of this convention attests,
cable is making broadband happen! Without the cable industry,
consumer broadband services would still be an enticing vision
without a market or a delivery system.
We've made the
word "broadband" part of consumers’ vocabulary. And we’re
taking the lead in making it part of their lives.
Over
the past five years our industry has invested nearly $50
billion to upgrade more than three-quarters of a million miles
of plant with fiber optics. And we’re putting expanded
bandwidth and digital technology to work for
consumers.
More than 12 million consumers have now
signed up for digital cable services. And cable companies are
installing more than 135,000 new digital customers every week!
Cable modem service is now available to nearly 60
million U.S. households. That’s right. Sixty million. Over
five million of them have opted to take our high speed
Internet service. And 70,000 more are signing up every
week.
Not surprisingly the success of cable modems lit
a fire under the regional Bell companies. The Bells had DSL
technology available for more than a decade. But only when
cable launched affordable high speed Internet service, did the
Bells begin to deploy it. The result of cable’s investment?
Fierce competition and rapid growth in this critical sector of
our economy.
So yes, we’re making broadband happen! And
not just for a select set of zip codes. We don’t intend to
leave rural America and under-served urban neighborhoods
stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide.
We’re
deploying broadband in small towns like Chillicothe, Illinois;
Thief River Falls, Minnesota; Gauley Bridge, West Virginia;
and Warner, South Dakota.
Often under-served big-city
neighborhoods are also getting broadband. AT&T is serving
such neighborhoods right here in Chicago.
AOL Time
Warner is doing the same in New York, just like Adelphia in
Los Angeles, Cox in New Orleans and Comcast in Philadelphia.
In these and many other urban centers, cable is not
only deploying broadband; we’re reaching out to communities to
help them exploit this powerful tool.
Cable in the
Classroom is delivering on our industry’s commitment to
provide free high-speed Internet to schools and libraries. But
high speed Internet alone won’t get the job done. So Cable in
the Classroom is taking the lead in teaching children, parents
and teachers how to find and properly use the treasures on the
Internet.
That’s an accomplishment we should be proud
of!
We should be equally proud of the quality and
variety that our industry has brought to TV programming. To be
sure: programming is still the heart and soul of our business!
We’ve evolved from a conduit for other people’s
programs to a rich source of original programs.
The
quality and variety of cable programming is the best evidence
of how far our industry has come as an institution in American
life.
And the partnership between cable programmers
and operators that changed the face of television is again
poised to enrich TV viewing using interactive
technology.
Of course, any industry that touches as
many lives as we do will always be affected by public
policy.
And that’s something we should always keep in
mind.
But the good news is that cable is one industry
where the 1996 Telecommunications Act has produced real
consumer benefits. Rate deregulation has enabled us to invest
billions in new technology, new programming and customer care,
bringing competitive choices to consumers.
And that’s
pretty much what Congress intended.
We’re not only
competing with DBS for every subscription television viewer,
we’re competing vigorously with phone, wireless and satellite
companies to provide consumers high-speed data.
And
cable companies are the only facilities-based competitors to
the regional Bell monopolies in residential markets. Despite
all the obstacles, we now serve more than one million
residential phone customers. And Internet protocol telephony
promises an even more efficient means to deliver voice over
cable.
Our biggest challenge is to deploy advanced
services as rapidly as consumers’ demand. This is not a bad
problem to have. And if we deliver quality services, at
reasonable prices, and provide responsive customer care, then
I believe public policy makers will not encumber our ability
to compete.
In my view, most public policy makers
understand that cable is very different than it was a decade
ago. And most understand that we face strong competition in
every facet of our business. As importantly, there is a
growing recognition that our industry is the leader in making
broadband happen.
I know everyone here shares my pride
in how far our industry has come, and where we’re going. Our
future is even brighter than our past!
And all of you
are the reason why.
Thank you! And have a great
show!
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