Cable is dead.
Or at least 'cable' in the name of the lobbying trade association that has represented the industry in Washington over the last several decades.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which spends about $75 million a year advocating for the industry, rebranded itself on Monday as The Internet and Television Association.
"The word cable does not reflect the current consumer experience of our member companies," spokesman Brian Dietz said. "The industry itself has moved beyond cable in recent years."
The association decided to keep "NCTA" as an acronym because it has a "long history and name recognition in D.C.," Dietz said.
"The image of cable is older, like 20 years ago," said David Neff, the president of Philadelphia ad agency Neff Associates. "But cable is not a bad thing.
Neff believes that the cable industry is rebranding itself ahead of the huge changes taking place in the media platforms as millenials.
Subscribers have been dropping cable-tv subscriptions for years as online streamers such as Netflix and Amazon have boomed. Data show a reluctance among millenials to subscribe to traditional cable, which charge a monthly rate, a minimum typically around $80, for a bundle of cable networks and broadcast-TV stations.
Meanwhile, high-speed broadband subscribions, in addition to revenue related to those services, continue to soar at traditional cable companies.
Comcast, the nation's largest cable operators, now markets its services as Xfinity and it boasts more Internet subscribers than cable-TV subscribers. And of course Comcast owns NBCUniversal, with its TV and cable networks.
Charter Communications, the nation's second-largest cable operator, markets its services as Spectrum.
This is the second step in this direction for the trade association. In 2015, the association rebranded its annual trade show as INTX - The Internet & Television Expo.
"Modernizing our brand injects a new sense of excitement into our effort to represent an industry that is America's largest and fastest home internet provider and the creator of the world's best television content," Michael Powell, the association's president and a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a statement on Monday.
Published: September 19, 2016 — 11:11 AM EDT | Updated: September 19, 2016 — 3:44 PM EDTThe Philadelphia Inquirer
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