On the TV Front: Is Cable Finally a Contender?

The last time the National Cable Television Assn. held its annual convention in Los Angeles, it was 1981. Only 26% of American households had cable television, and industry revenues were less than $4 billion a year.

In 1988, nearly 12,000 executives, programmers, equipment makers and others in the cable industry are back at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Cable is in 51% of television households, and industry revenues have almost tripled to more than $11 billion a year.

Seven years ago, the cable industry was scrambling for power. Today, the industry has it.

The one-time poor cousin of the entertainment business is now being called a potential monopoly. Hollywood movie studios say cable is taking their revenues away. The once mighty broadcast television networks say cable is taking their audience away.

Said association President James P. Mooney to his industry this week: “Let’s today--right now--reaffirm our industry’s commitment to serving the public. Let’s reaffirm our industry’s commitment to deliver good service at reasonable prices, and to offer the olive branch even as some of our competitors brandish the stick.”

At this year’s “Cable ‘88” convention, which closes today, Mooney and other industry leaders have been grappling with the issue of maintaining their power but using it responsibly.

And, though the cable business continues to resist government regulation of its business, its representatives here have continually expressed fear that the nation’s largely deregulated telephone companies are close to breaking down the legal constraints that have prevented them from entering the cable-TV business.

Said Mooney: “This is as if the lions in the St. Louis Zoo wanted the right to live in the antelope cage.”

Antelopes being preyed on by lions may be a cute, cushy and barely appropriate metaphor for an $11-billion business, but the talk of the convention hall this week has centered on cable’s vulnerabilities--to competition as well as to its own successes and excesses.

In a spirited discussion Sunday, a panel of chief executives representing the country’s leading cable companies defended their industry’s honor.

ABC political and media analyst Jeff Greenfield humorously took cable executives to task on the medium’s responsibility to the viewer as the industry grows in size, power and control in a panel on “Seeing Is Believing: Television--Today and Tomorrow.”

Among those panelists coming to the defense of the industry was Home Box Office Chairman Michael Fuchs.

Although most of Greenfield’s remarks were tongue-in-cheek, he asked the panelists to consider several major issues facing cable in the next decade:

--Whether the current trend toward production co-ventures between cable, PBS and the networks will lead to homogenized and low-quality television;

--Whether cable is taking over event programming, particularly sports, that used to be available to the general public on the broadcast networks.

--Whether the cable industry, by breaking ground in news coverage, will create a world of information haves and have-nots, based on the ability to pay for cable service.

Greenfield borrowed the Fred Allen quip “they call television a medium because it’s rare when it’s well done” to describe what might happen to TV programming if the current trend of cable, network and independent television blending into one industry continues.

The cable executives conceded that Greenfield’s prediction of a TV future which will have “Disney selling to ABC and NBC selling to Disney and ABC appearing on Fox Broadcasting and everybody doing it to everybody” is a likely one.

HBO’s Fuchs, however, said it doesn’t matter where programming is done as long as it’s done well.

“I think we should be more concerned about what the content is going to be, not where it gets made,” Fuchs said.

Greenfield also suggested that cable might be choking off general public access to special events; Fuchs said that he believed major sports events such as the Super Bowl would be protected from becoming only available on cable by government regulation.

And Fuchs and the other executives agreed that cable’s decision to try its hand at news coverage only increased the public’s options for getting information, rather than taking away from the role of network news.

Out on the convention’s exhibit floor, talk among the attendees often leaned toward the impact, if any, that the Writers Guild of America strike could have on their business. There are pluses and minuses, executives said, but most said that anything hurting the established TV networks could be good for cable.

John McLaurin, vice president of marketing for the Learning Channel, sees the strike as a big advantage indeed.

“It (the writers’ strike) provides us in cable a perfect window to get people used to the channel,” McLaurin said. “My primary interest is in viewership. It opens up a window for people to try some alternative channels, and I think they’ll like what they see.”

His channel, which features educational programs, rarely depends on union writers and will take promotional advantage of the networks’ weakened position in the fall by “gearing up with a lot more visibility than ever before.”

HBO senior vice president Larry Carlson noted that HBO faces the same problems as the networks since they use a lot of original programming. “We have HBO Premiere Films on the West Coast, shooting eight or 10 movies for us, and production on some of them is delayed by the strike,” he said. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to say that it’s a big advantage to anyone.”

Kay Koplovitz, president and chief executive officer of USA Network, said the channel will begin its season as scheduled Oct. 3 with no extra advertising, but added the company may reschedule some of its more attractive movies against the network reruns if the strike lasts into November.

Fred Schneier, executive vice president of Showtime/The Movie Channel, pointed out that the cable industry traditionally has a good summer, since its fresh material is competing with network reruns. And “The strike will clearly make the summer last longer,” he added. “Our September and October programming will be that much more attractive to the consumer.”