MTV’s Transgender Awareness Week Initiative Is ‘Television Done Right’
Every year a cable programmer, operator or affiliate is recognized with the Golden Beacon award, the highest honor in cable communications, for its role in producing a communications or public affairs initiative that has left a mark on audiences or effected change in some way. Hosted by the Association of Cable Communicators and judged by peers within the cable industry, the Beacon Awards serve as good reminders of the large influence that cable operators and programmers have on audiences–and their ability to shape perceptions and mobilize change simply by sharing inspiring stories across
Set-Top Box Energy Efficiency Agreement Named 'Project of the Year'
In 2012, NCTA, along with the Consumer Technology Association, the pay-TV industry, energy efficiency advocates, and device manufacturers created a voluntary agreement to drastically improve the energy efficiency of set-top boxes. Four years later and we can say with confidence that it’s been an enormous success. To date, the agreement has delivered Americans more than $1 billion in energy savings and avoided millions of tons of CO2 emissions. The voluntary agreement is still making headlines, now being honored by the Environmental Leader, a leading daily trade publication covering energy and
Internet Trends Report Shows Streaming Dominates Internet Traffic
Sandvine, a provider of broadband network solutions, just released its latest Global Internet Phenomena Report. Unsurprisingly, Internet usage and access is on the rise. Overall, streaming audio and video account for a whopping 71 percent of all downstream evening traffic in North America. Sandvine suggests this will reach 80 percent by 2020. What accounts for most of that traffic? According to Sandvine, Netflix streaming accounts for 35.2 percent of all downstream traffic. The slight surprise is that this is a downward trend from six months ago when Netflix accounted for 37 percent. In all
Mobile and Social: How We’re Really Getting Our News
Facebook, smartphones and tablets have been around for a long time — long enough to say with confidence that the fact we share news on them isn’t itself news. But what is news is that almost 44 percent of U.S. adults that get their news online are learning about the 2016 presidential election through social networking sites. Pew’s latest fact sheet on the State of the Media 2016’s segment on “Digital News Audience” spotlights the findings of a survey released earlier this year about media consumption during the 2016 presidential campaign. Here, the breakdown of the 65 percent of respondents
Why TV Everywhere Will Soon Be the New Norm
Summertime is approaching and with it vacations and travel start to ramp up. It’s during these times that taking TV on the go with you is the easiest and most convenient way to stay on top of those programs and live streaming events that you just don’t want to miss. Pay TV providers offer TV Everywhere services and with that comes a myriad of content available to subscribers on their phones or tablets and anywhere and everywhere they go outside of their homes. More and more people are catching on, but did you know that next summer there could be a whole new batch of happy travelers watching
Connecting to the Internet in the Year 2020
The world will gain about 1 billion new internet users and reach 4.1 billion in the next four years, according to Cisco’s VNI Global IP Traffic Forecast, 2015-2020, released earlier this week. This addition of new users will be accompanied by a significant growth in internet traffic by the year 2020, which shouldn’t be a surprise, given that we’ve experienced these types of patterns and increases in the U.S. alone over the past several years. The advances we have seen in technology and broadband speed have led to the rise of live video streaming and a digital-centric media landscape, one which
Recognizing LGBT Programming Throughout Pride Month and Beyond
It’s been sixteen years since former U.S. president Bill Clinton officially recognized and declared June as Pride Month. That’s also 16 years of some of the best breakthroughs in LGBT programming we’ve seen on television. Cable creators have long been championing gay rights by ensuring more screen time for LGBT characters and incorporating storylines that point out injustices against the LGBT community. With pride celebrations underway, we take a look at a few of the cable-led efforts happening this month in support of the LGBT community, and a look back at some of the programming that broke
30 Years of Senate Coverage: How C-SPAN 2 Changed History
Three decades ago this week, an important part of how American democracy is covered was forever changed. C-SPAN, known for its long-format and uneditorialized televising of U.S. federal government proceedings, launched the first of its spin-off networks, C-SPAN 2, which provides live coverage of the U.S. Senate, and reaches over 95 million U.S. homes. This might be taken for granted in today’s 24-hour live streaming news cycle, but it was very much a novelty to allow TV cameras onto the Senate floor back in 1986. Floor proceedings of the House of Representatives had started airing in 1979, but
FCC Privacy Plan Will Confuse Consumers and Provides No Added Protection
Good news Internet users – the FCC is proposing to adopt new rules that it claims will give you more control over how your data is collected and used when you’re on the Web. The soundbites sound great – now you can be sure that your privacy preferences will be honored wherever your surfing takes you. Except, not so much. What they don’t tell you is that any privacy choices you make under the proposed rules will apply only to the first entity you encounter on the Internet – your broadband provider. For everything else you do on the Web (use a browser or the operating system on your mobile
More Than Technology: Cable Invests in Our Communities
$1.2 billion. According to a recently released study commissioned by NCTA, that's how much cable’s video and Internet providers and programmers put toward corporate giving in 2014. The impact that kind of funding has on socially responsible programs is immeasurable, but what does that even look like? Our industry has long been a contributor to philanthropic efforts, but until now, there hasn’t been much information about what that impact translates to. Where is the money going? Who is it helping? And how is it making our lives and communities any better? The report, Measuring the Philanthropy