The Cable Center has named the 2017 class of the Cable Hall of Fame, to be inducted in Washington, D.C., on April 26. For the first time, the class includes a TV show.
The inductees are: Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal; Jill Campbell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cox Communications; Michael T. Fries, CEO of Liberty Global; Ken Lowe, chairman, president and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive; The Sopranos, the HBO series, with the induction accepted by David Chase, the show's creator, and David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications.
The 20th annual ceremony will be held during the time when the NCTA had planned to hold its former annual convention in D.C. before opting to "sunset" the convention. The Cable Center had previously said it was keeping the date in D.C. for the Hall of Fame event. The Cable Center has not named the specific venue in D.C. for the ceremony yet. The event's web site is www.cablehalloffame.com.
In a release, the Cable Center said the honorees were chosen based on their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation in media. As for including a TV show for the first time, the center said The Sopranos and its creator, Chase, "will be acknowledged for the impact the program had by catapulting HBO and the entire cable community into groundbreaking scripted storytelling."
“This year’s Cable Hall of Fame honorees are truly the best of the best,” Michael Willner, president and CEO of Penthera Partners and chairman of The Cable Center’s board of directors, said in the release. “They are leaders of some of the most influential companies in the world, and have shaped the industry’s operations, programming and our society. We are thrilled to induct our first series into the Cable Hall of Fame as well. The Sopranos was the seminal series that proved television was more than the broadcasting networks alone, and we are excited to pay tribute to the impact it had on the growth and success of our industry.”
“It is an honor to welcome these individuals into the Cable Hall of Fame, and to recognize our first television program,” Cable Center CEO Jana Henthorn said in the release. “The passion, drive and thought leadership displayed by all of the honorees has steered our industry into the international powerhouse it is today, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements at the Cable Hall of Fame celebration."
Since 1998, 121 men and women have been inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame, the Denver-based Cable Center said.
