At Cable Convention, an Industry Tries to Face Up to Its Tarnished Reputation

If any industry knows it has an image problem, it is the cable business. Just about every consumer has experienced the anxious wait for a technician who might or might not arrive during the dreaded four-hour “window.” Experiences like that, as well as service failures and rising rates, create a bad reputation that is hard to shake. Industry executives understand that. Michael K. Powell, chief executive of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the trade group that held its annual convention last week, thinks he might have a solution. “We’re going to try to eliminate the word ‘cable’ from our name,” he said in an interview on the sprawling exhibition floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Powell was joking, of course, but only by half. “It’s a cynical way to look at it,” he said. “But here we are, a high-tech, multiplatform service industry. And we’ve got this albatross around our neck.” Powell gazed across the convention floor. “Maybe something with the word ‘freedom’ in it...”