Fine Giving: Cable Philanthropy Totaled $1.4 Billion in '04

For those wanting to put a dollar figure on cable’s good works and donations your wait is over. Cable World will report today CTPAA quietly commissioned Delahaye to research the subject last year; based on data from 34 companies it’s estimated cable’s good works and contributions in ’04 totaled $1.36bln. That includes $811mln in donated PSA time and $8.5mln worth of employee volunteer time. It’s the 1st time cable has successfully put a dollar figure on its charitable work. "We do a lot of things for folks in our local communities … that’s one of the things that differentiates us from satellite," CTPAA exec dir Steve Jones says. So far, CTPAA hasn’t done a lot with the figure, although it’s been popping up in NCTA speeches and will be alluded to at CTPAA’s Forum (DC, Mar 19-22). CTPAA plans to conduct the survey every other year. It will ask companies for ’06 data next year. Of the 34 companies that participated in the inaugural survey, 16 are programmers and 18 are cable operators. With better tracking and more participation, CTPAA expects to find that $1.36bln is a low estimate of cable’s work. It’s hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison between cable and other industries because each industry tracks its giving differently if at all, but to provide some perspective, NAB members provided $1.7bln in PSA time in ’03.