Cable is cool

SAN FRANCISCO--The National Cable Telecommunications Association Show has always been an entertaining mix of television glitch and telecom technology hype, sort of Sponge Bob meets the Spice Channel meets Internet Protocol. Over the past several years, however, it has quietly transformed into less of a programming showcase and more of a business meeting, based primarily around the business of using technology to make more money.

That change is very obvious at this year's National Cable Show in San Francisco, from the opening session to the program itself and to the exhibit floor, which was strangely quiet on its opening night Sunday.

Steve Burke, the Comcast chief operating officer who chaired the convention committee, told the opening session attendees that this year's show is shorter and more focused for a reason.

"This show is less focused on making deals and more focused on thinking about the future of the cable industry," Burke said, highlighting what he called cable's "unique position."

"It's less about the cable industry talking to itself," he said, "and more about having a real dialogue with the leaders of the many industries with which cable is working, including Hollywood, the high-tech sector and the telephone business."

Clearly, much of the high-tech sector is looking to cable as the future--Jerry Yang, co-founder and "chief Yahoo" of Yahoo!, and Bing Gordon, executive vice president and chief creative officer of Electronic Arts, each said as much in the opening general session.

And while there were notable programming launches here--an all-gay channel, more Hispanic programming and additions such as Brazilian league soccer to the GOL TV lineup--this NCTA event seems much more about converging services, adding voice to the bundle in a profitable way and figuring what all that bandwidth can do, in a commercial sense.

As with any change, there were some complaints.

"Where's the swag, man?" asked one cable operator. "I promised my daughter some cool stuff--there always used to be cool stuff here."

The Nickelodeon giveaways and sports figure autograph sessions have given way to demos of voice mail over the television and DVR programming via wireless phone.

The cable industry is getting down to business, and this show reflects just that.

E-mail me at cwilson@primediabusiness.com.