NCTA’s rebranded INTX: Internet & Television Expo (aka The Cable Show) finishes up today in Chicago. This show, like its sponsoring organization is having a bit of an identity crisis. Indeed, the name change may go beyond the show to its sponsoring organization.

Fourteen years ago, “NCTA” used to be an acronym for the “National Cable Television Association.” But on May 1, 2001 the Association changed its name to “National Cable & Telecommunications Association” in order to better reflect, “cable’s transformation from a one-way video supplier to a competitive supplier of advanced, two-way services including digital video, high-speed Internet, cable telephony and interactive TV.” To further reflect its evolutionary journey in self-identity, the NCTA’s iconic annual “The Cable Show” was rebranded as “INTX – Internet and Television Expo” to again reflect the industry’s transformation as it learns how to better focus on the digital media and entertainment economy. Now, there is some chatter that NCTA will once again change the name of the association, perhaps to NCTA: The Internet & Television Association: and just drop “cable” altogether.

What brave new world has cable entered? As FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler put it in his keynote address, “You deserve straight talk about what it means now that you are cable companies, video providers and network builders.” He then continued on to discuss his controversial stands on his “Open Internet Order” (i.e., net neutrality) and the Comcast/Time Warner acquisition he helped doom. Wheeler’s “straight talk” didn’t go over so well with the crowd. Liberty Global’s CEO Michael Fries drew robust applause in the panel following Wheeler’s keynote by saying, “I am baffled by the chairman’s remarks. There is a presumption of guilt for success I’ve never seen before.”

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also had his moment during his otherwise business-like presentation about Comcast’s recent successes, including transitioning to a company serving more Internet than cable customers.

Roberts was showing off Comcast’s new Xfinity X1 remote control and user interface that responds to voice commands to bring up various viewing and other choices. “Show me the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger,” Roberts commanded. In response, we see on the big screen Van Diesel sprinting from a house that violently explodes just behind him in a scene from Furious 7. “That pretty much sums it up,” Roberts dead panned.

Beyond the rebranding, politics, and merger break-ups, it was clear from the various panels that industry leadership clearly is focusing on developing and executing on a new business order defined by ever more capable and integrated technology platforms, innovations in content and how users want to interact with this content, and interesting new ways to monetize an emerging set of services.

For example, Time Warner Cable’s EVP/COO Media Services Joan Gillman, who oversees TWC’s advanced advertising, data and interactive solutions for advertisers and network partners, was pressed into duty across several panels exploring monetization strategies. She led a a discussion with MediaLink’s president/COO Wenda Harris exploring the implications to cable providers, oops, I mean Internet and Television Providers, offering OTT services and the future of television advertising in a SVOD (subscription video on demand) world. Operators need to figure out the economics of linear television versus SVOD in ways that keep subscribers engaged and satisfied.

When it comes to the future of television and digital advertising, these worlds are meshing quickly, especially for the “not cable” industry as it leverages it data advantages in the fast breaking era of programmatic advertising. In a panel led by the Cable Advertising Bureau’s Sean Cunningham, Zachary Cunningham (ESPN), Billy Farina (Cox Media), Mark Lieberman (Viamedia) and Brett Wilson (TubeMogul) shared their views on programmatic.

Essentially, the takeaway is that programmatic is about all types of inventory including premium avails, audience targeting data, efficient and automated workflows in the buy/sell process, dynamically serving relevant content, better modeling attribution, and optimizing campaigns. Panelists estimated that by 2020 somewhere between 20% and 100% of television ad trading will be on programmatic platforms. The 20% comes from Lieberman’s assumption that it’s a totally automated process from the buyer’s perspective. The 100% comes from Wilson’s belief that the whole underlying system will be automated and programmatic, though actual trading likely will continue involve human creativity and negotiation in the mix.

Ultimately, the panel concluded that programmatic is just another sales channel. And everyone loses if the industry can’t figure out how to avoid channel conflicts between programmatic and good, old-fashioned human AEs who as direct sellers who will continue to drive high value returns on commercial inventory.

Across the program, content people consistently agreed it’s all about the content. The non-cable executives consistently agreed it’s all about creating compelling user experiences and satisfaction subscribers. Those in charge of generating revenue have to balance the cost of content with the ability to monetize it. What’s the better business? Well top-line revenue and margins tell different stories. Cablevision’s James Dolan put some numbers to it, “For every $1 in profit I make from television subscriptions, I make $7 in profit from selling broadband Internet connections.”

Well, good-bye cable and hello Internet.

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Yesterday’s announcement of Comcast/NBCU buying Time Warner Cable was a monumental announcement as it consolidates more of the cable portion of the Multiple Video Programming Delivery services (MVPDs) that includes mostly cable and satellite delivery services. Instead of Charter moving up the list of cable MSOs, Comcast will now be clearly number one if the deal is approved by government officials.

The implications of this acquisition are significant. First. it will allow the merged company to compete more effectively with its increasing number of competitors. In addition to the satellite delivered services (DISH and Direct TV), nontraditional services such as Hulu and Netflix are becoming more competitive “Over the Top” video programming options to subscribing to local cable systems as sources for video programming. Poignantly on the same day as this deal is announced, Netflix announced that they have obtained the rights to a Star Wars animated series.

Second, dealing with the video programming providers (both cable-satellite delivered networks and local television broadcasters) will also be affected as Comcast/NBCU owns several in both categories. Negotiations between the newly merged company and those providers not vertically integrated will be more involved and possibly leading to lower prices (or smaller increases in those prices over time).

Finally, while the cable systems of the newly merged company do not overlap, the combination of these two companies should make them more formidable in the local advertising marketplace. Already, local cable systems are becoming stronger competitors in the local advertising marketplace.

Nationally, BIA/Kelsey estimates that local cable systems have 5.3 percent of the local advertising revenues growing to 5.8 percent by 2017, growing by nearly $1.8 billion. Comcast already is very aggressive in developing local cable advertising, see Comcast Spotlight. Certainly, when dealing with national advertisers, the newly formed company can offer a wider reach than before. National advertisers focusing more on local media markets is an important trend for all local media to consider and will be explored in detail at the upcoming BIA/Kelsey conference, Leading in Local: the National Impact.

While all of these improvements to the newly merged company could occur, the proposed acquisition will face significant scrutiny in Washington. Concerns about too much concentration in program delivery and its impact on negotiations with program suppliers will be front and center when the FCC and Department of Justice looks at this deal.

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Time Warner Cable‘s ad division recently launched Enhanced iTV, which lets advertisers target interactive television ads to viewers in different local markets based on the time of day.

The idea behind interactive television is combining the power of Internet ads with television content. Advertisers are consistently looking for ways to transform advertising from a passive consumer experience into “calls to action” that engage with brands and local businesses. Viewers can respond to ad offers instantly with the click of their remote. Brands also hope to drive viewers to second screens such as smartphones and tablets for even more engagement. Enhanced iTV is available in Time Warner Cable’s existing interactive TV markets nationwide, including New York City, Charlotte and Cincinnati.

“iTV provides traditional TV advertisers with the ability to measure the effectiveness of their TV campaign so it works for local, regional and national advertisers alike,” said Joan Hogan Gillman, president of Time Warner Cable Media in a statement to BIA Kelsey. Brownlee Jewelers, a local retail chain in Charlotte, increased its in-store traffic by 150 percent after implementing a media plan using iTV. Over the course of 12 weeks, Brownlee Jewelers ran 2,000+ commercials with the following message as the on-screen overlay: “Earn more money in 10 minutes than in one full work week!”

Not all iTV ventures have been successful. One notable failure is Canoe Ventures, the project of six cable giants (Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision and Bright House Networks) that lets advertisers include interactive elements in commercials. It announced last month that it was closing its iTV-ad business to focus on video-on-demand advertising.

As we see with Time Warner Cable, individual carriers are continuing to pursue iTV business through their own ad-sales teams and video-business units. Other players in this space include Cablevision, DirectTV and TiVo.

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One of the big themes in local this year is the increased amount of localization in national ad campaigns. We saw it with U-Haul and Progressive Insurance a couple of weeks ago on our podium at ILM East in Boston. Those have been mostly search plays. But we also see it with display ads on national networks developed by local companies, such as Gannett and Morris. And we see it on localized efforts placed via companies such as Centro.

A mainstay in that part of the industry is Media Networks Inc., the Stamford, Connecticut-based Time Warner-owned company that specializes in localizing national advertisers in print magazines and more promisingly — given the decline in the print magazine business — a wide variety of national and local websites.

MNI dates back to 1969, but really began transforming to the digital age in 2006. Today, digital accounts for roughly $35 million, or half of its $65 million to $70 million annual revenues. Key categories include auto, health care, finance and regional banking. Education is also a big play. In addition, the company places smaller regional advertisers that want to broadcast a national-like presence via placement in national publications.

MNI Digital head Michael Nasif tells us the company works in close partnership with agencies. “You need a very specific approach to local markets,” he says, noting that a carmaker might be pushing a family van in one part of the country and a sports car in another.

While MNI is agnostic toward media channels, Nasif says the challenge is to provide more accountability at the local level. National clients are used to greater accountability from print magazines. “The nature of a paid subscriber in terms of brand value and a trustworthy approach is not automatically replicated online,” he says.

Nasif also notes, interestingly, that while tablets have been suggested as the savior of magazines, it is going to take a lot of work, given that tablet penetration is still relatively low, and that media subscriptions on tablets are a piece of a piece of that.

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