NCTC Could Drop 'Cable' As Industry Group Eyes Name Change

Industry trade group the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) could be dropping the "cable" moniker as it eyes a potential name change. Fierce Video reports: A trademark application filed by NCTC on May 17 shows one proposal for a new name: National Content & Technology Cooperative. An NCTC spokesperson confirmed to Fierce that the organization will be changing its name, but said it is considering a large number of options and hasn't yet settled on a final decision. The spokesperson noted it's taking time to register potential names, but some of the other choices on the table include simply "NCTC," "NCTC Online" or even sticking with its current brand of the National Cable Television Cooperative. [...] According to the application, it appears NCTC is also considering losing the image of a coaxial cable that's currently featured in its logo.

So why the potential shift away from cable? One factor could be that the industry has clearly changed since NCTC formed in 1984, with cable operators in recent years deemphasizing traditional video offerings. The "Cable Television" part of the group's name is becoming less accurate over time, said Brett Sappington, VP of Interpret. "Broadband, not television, is the cash cow for the cable industry," he told Fierce Video. "Many of the organization's members are actually moving away from offering their own video service and are, instead, focusing on broadband bundled with streaming services." [...] Along with industry changes come some shifts in perception as well. "Cable TV doesn't necessarily have a positive connotation today," Sappington noted. "In fact, many online TV services such as Sling TV or FuboTV emphasize why consumers should 'drop cable' and go with their services instead," he continued.

The what?

[NateFromMich]

I've never heard of them.

Dropping Cable

[Local ID10T]

Truly a case of "and nothing of value was lost".

Why no television?

[fermion]

They are still cable, just delivering a more abstract set of data rather than just scrambled video and audio. It is television that they are leaving. I guess it is the market perception of the word cable they are running from. Like KFC not wanting people to say the word fried.

Cable has always sucked.

[Random361]

I remember back when I was only a wee years old and my parents brought me into the living room to see this fantastic new thing they had called "cable TV." At that time, the promise was that by subscribing to the service you would get better variety and no advertisements. It wasn't more than a year (which I remember because that's when we moved out of that house) that the channels were littered with advertisement crap. Even though I was like 4 years old, I remember product placements on Nickelodeon or whatev

Re: Cable has always sucked.

[ArmoredDragon]

Cable TV never promised no ads, from the very start it was basically just a way to get local channels in areas where the geography didn't permit (i.e you had a mountain between your house and the broadcast antenna.) That later extended to bringing "superstations" (wgn, tbs, etc) to different regions, including other states. Then eventually content that was exclusive to cable, and later came "premium" content (starting with HBO.) At no point were no ads promised in any of this, except for the premium channels.

Yep. HBO came 25 years after CATV

[raymorris]

Indeed. ICable is called called CATV because that stands for Community Antenna TeleVision. For the first 25+ years, cable systems simply had a large antenna on top of a hill or tower. This larger antenna could receive standard broadcast TV from the nearest major city. The antennas in people homes, typically in a valley, couldn't get the signal because of the intervening hills. (Towns tend to be built in valleys, next to rivers). So there was a community antenna on the hill or tower.

Because it was simply cat

Also, that makes OP 78 years old

[raymorris]

OP says they remember within a year of cable first coming out, they added ads. If OP remembered the first year of cable, they are 78 years old. And forgot that for that first year, and in fact the first decade, it had precisely the same ads you'd see on the other side of the hill.

Re:

[speedlaw]

I recall the Internet. It was a unique source of information, often with some informed content. Now, It is a wasteland of advertising, courtesy of the Amazon Affiliate Link. Now, the ad copy from the device maker's company website, copy-pasted to your SEO first 100 hits. Real information ? Buried in reply 49 or 78. Ads have clotted the whole thing. The internet is like radio. Crap on the channel is a feature, not a bug.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Always seems to go that way. Take YouTube Premium or whatever it's called now. No pre- or mid-roll ads, but many videos still have sponsor sections and merchandise ads baked in.

You actually get a better experience by not bothering with the subscription and just using SponsorBlock.

Re:

[cascadingstylesheet]

When it got to the point that the cable feed was a clone of the over-the-air feeds, it was over.

Eh?

I remember early cable ... it was just OTA stations, brought to you by ... a cable.

Granted, some of them were UHF stations from distant metropolises, which seemed really cool at the time.

Do like the JCTA

[Lije Baley]

Change the name to Super Happy Fun Conduit!

"Cable cutters"

[whoever57]

This is just to get away from the bad press they get with the number of cable cutters.

NCTC Could Drop 'Cable'

[93 Escort Wagon]

So they're joining the majority of their former customers?

Changing names is common

[MDMurphy]

I'll mention to someone locally about Charter. They'll say "no, I have Spectrum". The same thing in other places you'll mention Comcast and people don't know that Xfinity is the same company.

Changing the branding when the parent company is known for crappy service is not unheard of in the cable industry. Changing the one word that defines the delivery method is interesting. It's like Kentucky Fried Chicken changing to KFC to keep the "fried" word suppressed, even if their main product is still frie