Guest Columnist: John Lansing

Cable’s No Brainer: Reaching Home Builders And Designers By John Lansing If, at your next event, you could reach 40,000 highly targeted customers with no added costs, would you do it? That’s a no-brainer if ever there was one. And it’s exactly what the NCTA is doing this week by collaborating with the National Kitchen & Bath Association during the Cable Show ’07. By providing reciprocal admission to attendees to both associations’ industry shows running concurrently in Las Vegas May 7-10, our industry is at the nexus of integrating residential construction and cable technology to provide a seamless customer experience and an immediate comfort factor for consumers. The idea first came up at a planning meeting in New York last fall. Barbara York, NCTA Senior Vice President for Industry Affairs, seized the opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of cable content and connectivity to the nation’s leading home builders and designers. Collaborating with the kitchen and bath industry creates a great opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the broadband platform to the nation’s leading home builders and designers, who will gain new perspectives on how our industry is at the center of best new practices regarding home offices, home entertainment systems, game consoles, telephony, intelligent appliances, security systems. In addition to technology information, designers and builders attending to the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show will get insight into the role television programming plays in the cable-enabled home and how they can apply this knowledge into kitchen and bath design. Michael Smith, Food Network’s Senior Vice President for Creative Services, will share some of the new approaches to content delivery as well as consumer trends related to food and home during a presentation on Wednesday, May 9 at 12:15pm on the KBIS Center Stage in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The other half of the equation is the value cable technologists will gain by seeing what designers and contractors are doing today. That’s an insight we see regularly at Scripps Networks through the content on our networks, HGTV and DIY, as well as the dozen or so broadband vertical channels we program on our websites, including HGTV KitchenDesign, HGTVBathDesign and HGTVpro. For instance, current best practice in the homebuilding industry involves something called "structured wiring," integrating the use of home automation systems such as security, audio, video, lighting and temperature control to provide fast, easy access to homeowners. During these days of slowing construction starts, all builders are looking for an edge, and cable just might be able to provide part of that answer – and cement our relationship with the customer—if we can better understand this and similar issues. Both shows are well known for their cutting edge demonstrations, great exhibits, and strong panel discussions, with The Cable Show now in its 56th year as the annual showcase of the cable telecommunications industry and the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show established as the world’s largest international trade event dedicated to the kitchen and bath industry. Some might say it was just luck that the two shows are running concurrently in the same town. I say, why not be lucky and good by making this opportunity count for cable. John Lansing is president of Scripps Networks.