ACA Connects

ACAC - Episode 18 (Rob Shema)

Rep. Greg Gianforte is our featured guest in this edition of the DC2U video and podcast presented by ACA Connects. A Montana Republican first elected in 2016 to represent the entire state, Rep. Gianforte serves on the House Subcommittee on Communications & Technology, where the pace of rural broadband deployment has surged to the forefront of that panel’s public policy agenda. “It’s so vital for healthcare. It’s important for education,” Rep. Gianforte tells podcast host ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka said. “When the next Einstein is born in rural Montana, we want to make sure we have a great physics teacher. With telecommunications or remote delivery of content into schools, we can make that happen.” Gianforte, an entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering, has started five tech companies; his most recent venture started out in his home and grew to 1,100 Montana-based employees before being sold to Oracle. He is hopeful that C-Band spectrum will promote broadband access in rural states like his, and he praised FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for backing an FCC-supervised auction of those valuable airwaves. “This public auction for the C-Band is going to be a big deal,” the lawmaker said. “We have an obligation to make sure rural America is not left behind, that they are not somehow deficient to our urban areas.” Enjoy the discussion!

DC2U - Episode 9 (Rep. Greg Gianforte)

Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky is a Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a panel with jurisdiction over hundreds of communications providers who are members of ACA Connects. Guthrie’s district is famous for Fort Knox and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. On this podcast episode of DC2U, Rep. Guthrie shares with host ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka his thoughts on key policy debates related to communications amid all the tension associated with the House’s presidential impeachment inquiry. Rep. Guthrie discusses robocalls, spectrum allocation, STELAR renewal and broadband deployment. On the last topic, Rep. Guthrie was emphatic. “We need to get a good map,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of money from the federal level on broadband and still not getting the coverage that we need and not really completely understanding where the money needs to be spent.” Enjoy the discussion, which was recorded on Nov. 12, 2019.

DC2U - Episode 8 (Rep. Brett Guthrie)

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is a House Republican who represents Washington’s 5th district, which includes the eastern portion of that state and counts Canada, Oregon and Idaho as contiguous neighbors. First elected to the House in 2004, Rep. McMorris Rodgers is concerned about access to broadband technology, given the rural profile of her district. As she explains in this episode of DC2U, Rep. McMorris Rodgers says broadband deployment is a major concern among her constituents. “As I travel around eastern Washington, it’s the number one issue: closing the rural divide,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers told podcast host ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka on Nov 13. “We have to figure out how we get that Internet connection to every person and to every community because that’s out future.” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is eager to see Congress pass a uniform national online privacy law to avoid compliance problems with laws passed by multiple states. “We need to avoid a patchwork of state laws. That will only bring more confusion to the consumers and also make it impossible for businesses.”

DC2U - Episode 7 (Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers)

The phrase “rural is real” can mean a lot of things, but for independent communications executive Phil Spencer, it means a great opportunity to deliver top-notch broadband access to address consumers’ seemingly unquenchable demand for high-speed data services. Spencer, who is President & CEO of MegaBroadband Investments (MBI), explains the rural broadband outlook in this edition of our ACA Connects podcast, in a conversation with host Matthew M. Polka, who is ACA Connects President and CEO. Partnered with Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, MBI has acquired rural broadband providers Northland Communications, Eagle Communications and Vyve Broadband and currently passes 600,000 homes and businesses in 15 states. “The vast majority of our customers have one product with us, and that one product is broadband Internet service. Every month when I look at it, it just continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger – the number of single-service customers is just growing like crazy,” Spencer says. A veteran investor in rural cable systems, Spencer calls the growth in the broadband-only customer category “a huge change over the last 10 years” and suggests the decline of the once-mighty triple play (voice, video and data) offering looks irreversible.

ACAC - Episode 17 (Rural Is Real)

With an estimated $11 billion in payments in 2019 moving from consumers to just a handful of corporate TV station owners like Nexstar, Sinclair and the “Big 4” networks, never has the price of “free TV” been so expensive. For this sad state of affairs, consumers who are pay-TV customers of hundreds of ACA Connects members can thank a federal policy called “retransmission consent.” At the end of year, consumer protections found in federal law -- one of which requires TV stations to negotiate in good faith, while another bans exclusive retrans contracts -- will expire if the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR) is not renewed by Dec. 31. Typically, In order to maximize their retransmission consent revenue, the broadcasters and networks want these consumer protections to go away. In this new episode of our ACA Connects podcast, ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka and his ACA Connects Member guests take a close look at retransmission consent and its harms and distortions that plague smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). For example, capital required to deploy broadband in rural America is diverted in the form of retrans payments to monopoly TV stations (notwithstanding their sagging ratings). Meanwhile, the cost of retrans has gotten so out of control and TV stations’ signal blackouts so off the charts that some cable TV companies are in fact considering exiting the traditional video business in favor of a broadband-exclusive focus. Joining Matt on this podcast are: • Aaron Bradshaw, CEO and General Manager, CoMo Connect, Powered by Co-Mo Electric Cooperative, Inc.• Ben Moncrief, SVP of Strategic Relations, C-Spire• Darren Moser, CFO, AcenTek• Frank Scotello, SVP of Operations and Programming, Pulse Broadband 

ACAC - Episode 16 (Retransmission Consent And STELAR Reauthorization Panel with ACA Connects Members)

SCTE-ISBE CableTec EXPO ACA Connects Panel on Network Management and Broadband Growth for Mid-Size and Small ISPsMatt Polka, President and CEO of ACA Connects-America’s Communications Association, moderated a panel on theSCTE Innovation Show Floor Wed., Oct. 2, 2019, in New Orleans, with four key tech strategists on both the ISP andvendor side. Matt’s guests all have operator experience and now work strengthening the broadband connection in thehome. Matt’s guests included Josh Barstow, EVP-Corporate Strategy & Business Development, OpenVault; Cash Hagen,COO, Evolution Digital; Ken Johnson, Senior Vice President-Technology Services, Cable ONE, dba Sparklight; and TomWilliams, Vice President-Engineering & Technology, Schurz Communications. During the panel, Matt’s guests discussedsimplifying the customer experience, embracing the “wireless” home, turning wireless into a business opportunity, andusing data to help create positive customer experiences. Matt and ACA Connects thank Mark Dzuban and ZenitaHenderson of SCTE for the permission to air this SCTE panel on our next ACA Connects Podcast!

ACAC - Episode 15 (From the SCTE Show Floor – Connecting the Home!)

Want some real news from a few key D.C. policy insiders on the fate of the C-Band spectrum? Then search no further than this edition of DC2U, ACA Connects’ podcast and videocast hosted by ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka. To get a good idea of the underlying issues and policy alternatives related to clearing the C-Band, Polka turned to three policy experts: ACA Connects Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ross Lieberman, Charter Communications Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Colleen King, and Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) Senior Vice President & General Counsel Alexi Maltas.ACA Connects, Charter, and CCA combined to craft a proposal that needs Federal Communications Commission approval called the “5G Plus Plan.” The plan will free up a large swath of C-Band airwaves via an FCC auction for use by mobile communications providers planning to deploy 5G technology. The 5G Plus Plan will also generate billions in revenue for the U.S. Treasury; some of the auction revenue will fund an extensive fiber network especially needed by smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) that will no longer be able to rely on C-Band airwaves to receive satellite-delivered programming after the conclusion of the FCC’s C-Band auction. Complex and controversial with many parties at the table, the C-Band spectrum debate will be one of the most important issues the FCC will attempt to resolve this year. To get a sense of where the FCC is headed – a vote is expected this November – this new DC2U podcast is a good place to start. The podcast was recorded on Sept. 4 in Washington D.C.

DC2U - Episode 6 (The Experts Discuss the “5G Plus Plan”)

What’s retransmission consent all about? Why will “free TV” cost consumers $11 billion in 2019? Why have TV stations blacked out their signals a record 230 times in 2019?In this edition of DC2U, ACA Connects’ podcast and videocast, ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka explores the topic with a few communications policy experts: Mike Chappell, Executive Director of the American Television Alliance (ATVA); Trent Duffy, Partner with HDMK and ATVA spokesman; and John Simpson with Ride TV, an independent programmer.The podcast comes at a critical time with Congress in the process of reauthorizing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR), which not only requires TV stations to bargain for retrans in good faith but also prevents them from signing exclusive retrans deals that would likely impede competition among multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).Congress is also taking a close look at the Modern Television Act (H.R.3994), a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) that would abolish retransmission consent and establish other policy reforms.This podcast was recorded Sept. 4 in Washington, D.C. ACA Connects is an ATVA member.