Fewer Networks, Vendors Going West
By Linda Moss & Jeff Baumgartner -- Multichannel News, 8/24/2001 2:00:00 PM
The ranks of programmers that will skip exhibiting at the Western Show have expanded to include MTV Networks, USA Networks Inc., A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Television, Comedy Central, Scripps Networks and Oxygen Media.
Those companies are the most recent dropouts from this year's show -- one of the cable industry's two biggest annual get-togethers -- which will be back in Anaheim, Calif., Nov. 27 through 30.
Roughly 40 programmers have opted not to come back this year -- a group that now includes not only such giants as MTVN, but also Game Show Network, Fox Family Channel, QVC, Home Shopping Network, Telemundo, Black Entertainment Television (now part of MTVN parent Viacom Inc.) and Ovation: The Arts Network.
Veteran exhibitors Home Box Office, Showtime Networks Inc., Starz Encore Group LLC, Playboy TV, E! Networks and Discovery Networks U.S. have already publicly said they would not have booths at this year's show.
Along with the programmers, a long list of technology vendors has also left the floor, including Lucent Technologies, Sony Corp., Nortel Networks and Intel Corp.
Friday was the deadline for companies to cancel their exhibition space without forfeiting all of their deposit. Would-be Western Show exhibitors have already forked 50 percent of the cost of booth rental to the California Cable Television Association. They were to get a refund of 25 percent of that deposit if they informed the CCTA that they no longer wanted to exhibit by Friday.
The CCTA has already gone to great lengths to make sure that MSOs attend its confab, offering discounted association dues and free rooms in exchange for sending their top officials to the show.
AT&T Broadband, Adelphia Communications Corp., Charter Communications Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Insight Communications Co. Inc. and Time Warner Cable have all taken the association up on its offer.
The CCTA is using the presence of those cable-operator executives to lure programmers, who have complained that with MSO consolidation, fewer cable operators come to trade shows and less real deal-making gets done.
Although this year's show has lost many veteran exhibitors, it has gained 85 new attendees. The show currently has roughly 390 exhibitors on board -- including those involved with the CableNET technology showcase -- compared with 473 last year.
The number of vendors participating in CableNET so far is roughly equal to or slightly less than the total that were on board about this time last year, Cable Television Laboratories Inc. senior vice president of communications Mike Schwartz said.
Last year's CableNET drew about 70 displays, with some vendors offering more than one exhibit. Thus far, CableNET has between 50 and 60 vendors on board for 2001, Schwartz said.
R. Thomas Umstead contributed to this story.
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