National Show Attendance Down 23%

A slow economy and tight travel budgets apparently combined to drag down
attendance 23 percent at the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association's 50th annual convention, which ended Wednesday in Chicago.

The NCTA said Chicago show attendance was 24,042, compared with 31,110 in New
Orleans one year ago.

The NCTA also suffered a 10 percent decline in occupied floor space. In New
Orleans, exhibitors took up 349,000 square feet, but that figure dropped to
315,000 this year in Chicago.

The National Association of Broadcasters, which held its annual convention
two months ago in Las Vegas, also reported a decline in attendance but nothing
on a scale with the NCTA's loss.

The NAB reported a 2.1 percent decline, from 115,293 in 2000 to 112,766 in
2001.