Char-per Focus: Board Vote Puts the C Back in CTAM

CTAM quietly has gone back to its roots, making sure the "C" in its name officially stands for cable. Last month, the group’s board voted to amend CTAM’s bylaws and make the association’s focus MSOs and their programming and vendor affiliates. CTAM chief Char Beales downplayed the vote’s significance, noting CTAM’s been a predominantly cable group for years, although an influx of DBS and telco providers joined about 11 years ago. The presence of DBS and telco marketers in CTAM influenced it to concentrate on marketing education rather than exchanging ideas, CTAM’s original mission when it began in ’76. Yet while those execs are CTAM members, none participate in activities beyond the yearly Summit, Beales said. That fact "was a big wake-up call for us, and we decided…to take the word ‘cable’ in our name seriously," Beales tells CableWORLD in today’s edition. There’s also a logo change that will be unveiled this week, coming as the industry-wide ‘Only Cable Can’ initiative fades into the twilight, making way for an NCTA-developed national marketing campaign. CTAM’s now seen as a meeting place for marketers and technologists to strategize on maximizing VOD’s potential. "This industry just keeps changing," Beales says. "And that’s our job; to keep our finger on where things are headed."