NCTA Replaces 'Top 25 MSOs' List
Sometime in the last week, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association quietly dropped its handy “Top 25 MSOs” reference page and replaced it with a “Top 25 Multichannel Video Programming Distributors” list that includes four fierce cable competitors: DirecTV (now #2 on the list behind Comcast), Dish Network (#3), Verizon Communications (#8) and AT&T (#10).
The change, spotted earlier this week by CED’s Mike Robuck, means that the bottom four cable companies have been bumped off: Blue Ridge Communications (with an estimated 123,200 subs); Broadstripe (110,000); New Wave Communications (109,000); and Ohio’s Buckeye CableSystem (102,700).
Does this mean the NCTA is embarking on a Big-Tent strategy and will extend membership to satellite and telco operators?
No, according NCTA’s Brian Dietz: The trade group’s membership will remain exclusively cable on the distributor side.
Dietz downplayed the change. He noted that the new list is of the Top 25 MVPDs — an abbreviation used in regulatory circles to refer to pay-TV providers — which include satellite and telco operators “so they naturally should be listed,” he wrote in an e-mail.
I’m just glad NCTA is not changing into the NMVPDTA, which would be an entirely ridiculous abbreviation.
Greg Scott - Omnitron Systems commented:
Thanks for the heads-up. I use this list religiously but carry it around in my own annotated spread sheet form. I preferred the old lineup as I focus on true cable operators, and so I thought did NCTA. It doesn't make sense when I read the "About NCTA" page that says they represent "cable operators" (not telcos and satellite).
Todd Spangler commented:
Good point, Kent - NCTA also has been emphasizing the MVPD angle with respect to the FCC’s broadband/set-top notice of inquiry: NCTA: One-Size Set-Tops Don’t Fill All and One Set-Top to Rule Them All
Kent Gibbons, MCN commented:
Cable operators have been emphasizing the growth of other pay-TV platforms in seeking regulatory changes -- recently, must-carry rules (see our magazines Cablevision Seeks Must-Carry Knockout for precedents) -- so this makes political sense.