CTAM Chatter

There’s a reason this week’s Summit felt like the good ol’ dot-com days…the show set a record high attendance level of 3,396. — Nickelodeon’s kids’ volunteer initiative "The Big Help" was inducted into CTAM’s Hall of Fame Tues. "It’s a powerful example of creative marketing and social consciousness," CTAM pres Char Beales said. — Rainbow’s Josh Sapan was his typical modest self while picking up the chairman’s award. "This is probably a longevity award," he said. "If you hang around the store long enough, they eventually give you stuff." — With telephone companies banging down regulatory doors and pending legislation in Congress and at the state level, NCTA chief Kyle McSlarrow implored CTAM Summit attendees to "tell our story." He pressed upon the audience how vital it is that consumers know that cable operators spent $100bln to develop infrastructure back in ’96 and now telephone companies want free entry into a market that cable built. These companies are arguing that cable is the monopoly and they are the new entrants-the start-ups, he said. Terms like openness and neutrality sound right to the customer, but it is the job of marketers to dispel this myth and explain how these ideas are not beneficial when applied to cable, concluded McSlarrow. — Samsung svp Peter Weedfald called on TV nets to drop their ad rates or risk buyers turning to Internet advertising and other forms of new media. — Lamenting the lack of racing coverage in the press, NASCAR chmn/CEO Brian France said he’s mulling the idea of developing content that could be used by news organizations-sort of a "NASCAR AP." — What’s the future for IPTV? Judging by the CTAM panel, nobody knows; but everyone’s trying to be prepared. Verizon’s sold on it. Cox is dabbling in it. And companies like Fox and Microsoft will sell their wares to whatever platform will pay for them. "We’re like a sports agent," said Microsoft TV marketing dir Ed Graczyk. That means he’ll provide everyone equal access to the same technology.