BOSTON – Fifty Gold and 109 Silver Mark Awards were presented on Day One of the 2006 CTAM Summit here in Boston.
Among the Gold winners was a Canadian company: Astral Television Networks, for its On Demand TV spots for The Movie Network. Astral was the lone Canadian company to take home an award in 2006. For the full list of winners, click here.
The Mark Awards recognize excellence in consumer and industry marketing for the cable and telecommunications industry. MTV Networks received the most honors among the content providers, winning a total 19 Mark Awards, eight gold and 11 silver, followed by Turner Broadcasting, Inc. with 16. Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable tied among cable companies with a total of nine each.
CTAM also announced the competition’s highest honor, the fourth annual Top of the Mark Award which went to TNT for its INTO THE WEST campaign.
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Rogers Communications Chief Strategy Officer, Mike Lee, who was on the organizing committee for this year’s Summit, will be named to the CTAM National Board on Wednesday. It’s believed Lee, who is also the sponsorship committee chair for CTAM Canada, is the first international member on the CTAM U.S. board.
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Beginning in 2010, the CTAM Summit will move from its traditional mid-summer timing to the fall (which will be welcome by those sweating out 95-degree Boston days this week). CTAM said member requests are driving the change. Next year’s Summit will be July 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. followed in 2008 by a Summit in Denver. A 2010 fall venue has not been decided and it may even make the move in 2009.
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The CTAM Canada Events Committee is to be congratulated on a stellar (if a little warm) networking dinner held Monday evening at Kingfish Hall (above). The night was a sold out event and a great kick-off to the conference for Canadian delegates. In the photo immediately below are, from left: Alliance Atlantis’ Laura Comello and Judit Tomka with Cogeco Cable’s JP Caveen. In the bottom photo are, from left: CHUM’s Donia Bloxam, Rogers Cable’s Galit Borkovsky and Aivy Reinfelds and Playboy TV’s Ruby Tan.
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Cable continues to be a driving force in the video arena, according to recent research conducted by CTAM. In its July/August Pulse report, CTAM examined changes in home entertainment preferences.
Among total U.S. households overall, penetration of digital cable has risen to 26% from 20% last year; surpassing satellite at 24%. Digital cable has seen tremendous growth in cable households (46% in 2006 vs. 31% in 2005) as they upgrade from analog basic cable. As the number of digital cable households increased, so has the penetration of premium channels among cable households, from 42% in 2005 to 53% today, says the research.
Cable households with a DVR/PVR have more than doubled rising to 17% in 2006 compared to 7% in 2005. Thirty percent of digital cable households have a DVR compared to 22% of satellite households. Three-quarters (74%) of these digital cable households receive their DVR from their cable provider.
“With the increase in digital cable households, comes an increase in consumers wanting more advanced technologies and services. Customers are looking to cable to bring the full package of digital cable, DVRs, HDTV service, on demand features, high speed Internet and phone service into their homes,” said CTAM 
president and CEO Char Beales.
More and more consumers are also purchasing large screen TVs with roughly 55% ownership among premium, digital cable and satellite subscribers. One-third of households that have purchased a new TV in the past four years report owning an HDTV set. Roughly two-fifths of premium cable (42%) and satellite subscribers (40%), and more than one-third of digital cable subscribers (35%), own HDTV sets. However, only half (52%) of HDTV set owners report having HD service, with 66% of these households receiving HD service from cable compared to 33% receiving HD service from satellite, says the report.
Pulse research also found that consumers want high-quality products. Forty-three percent of consumers rank the quality of a product as the most important element when purchasing home entertainment equipment, followed by price (27%).
Eighty-two percent of consumers are interested in learning about cable TV enhancements such as HDTV service, on demand, DVRs and home networking directly from their cable provider. One-third (34%) prefer to receive this information online, 21% through direct mail pieces, closely followed by 20% who would prefer to call their cable provider, and 7% through billing inserts. In addition, 46% of satellite and 43% of DSL customers are interested in learning about cable services online; and 34% of DSL customers are interested in receiving information directly in the mail from cable providers.
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Look for new Canadian consumer research from CTAM Canada later this summer. The exclusive content will only be available to members. Join now at www.ctam.ca.
Photos by Greg O’Brien
