Association of Cable Communicators Names Award-Winners

Habitat for Humanity, Time Warner Cable of Staten Island, BET Networks’ Debra Lee to Be Honored

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/26/2008 4:08:00 PM

The Association of Cable Communicators announced the winners of several awards to be given out at its annual conference in Washington, D.C.

Habitat for Humanity will receive the Community Bridges Award, which goes to a group outside of the industry that has partnered with cable, in this case to raise public awareness about affordable housing.

Time Warner Cable of Staten Island (N.Y.) will get the ESPN Good Sports award, which goes to a community-enrichment project that involved education and sports. The cable company teamed up with Babe Ruth baseball leagues to create a tournament that wound up also generating on-demand programming for the cable operator.

Debra Lee, chairman and CEO of BET Networks, will accept the Joel A. Berger Award on behalf of the company's Rap It Up forums. BET works with urban and rural schools to set up panel discussions on HIV/AIDS.

The award is named after the former publisher of Multichannel News who died of AIDS in 1995. It will not be the first award for Lee associated with Berger. She received the 2003 Joel A. Berger Award from Cable Positive, the cable industry's nonprofit AIDS-action organization.

The awards will be given out at the ACC's Beacon Awards Gala April 1 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.