Cable executives attending last month’s National Show who were looking for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s annual cable-programming fact-book handout can now find that information on the Internet instead.
The NCTA officially shelved its “Cable Developments” and Television Critics Association tour-based “Cable Programming Guidebook” publications and moved the information to a programming-dedicated area on its Web site (www.ncta.com).
NCTA spokesman Paul Rodriguez said the Web-site versions of the two publications allow the organization to provide updated and pertinent information about cable networks and their valuable content.
The site -- which officially launched the week after the April 9-11 National Show -- features historical and contact information on nearly every national, regional and start-up cable service. The NCTA printed that information annually for the past 29 years as part of its Cable Developments book.
In addition, the site features information on cable’s original programs formerly included in the NCTA’s biannual Cable Programming Guidebook, which stemmed from the organization’s oversight of cable’s Winter and Summer TCA sessions.
The NCTA will yield control of the TCA cable network presentations to the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing beginning this summer.
On the site, each network will have the opportunity to showcase all of its original content, including show descriptions, photos and links to video clips or to other show-based Web sites, according to Rodriguez.
“It allows us to present information about the programming we offer and, for the programmers, it gives them what we hope is a good outlet to put out information about what cable has to offer,” he added.
