National Cable & Telecommunications Association Rebrands

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association is changing its name.

The trade group is restoring “television” to its moniker, dropping “telecommunications” and “cable,” but preserving “NCTA,” while adding the all-important “Internet” in the leadoff position.

The result: “NCTA-The Internet & Television Association.”

The executive committee of the NCTA (that will remain the second-reference shorthand for the association) approved the new moniker earlier this summer. The new branding is being unveiled Monday (Sept. 19) and includes a website relaunch.

“Modernizing our brand injects a new sense of excitement into our effort to represent an industry that is America’s largest and fastest home Internet provider and the creator of the world’s best television content,” NCTA president Michael Powell said in unveiling the new name and logo.

The NCTA was granted the fifth extension of its trademark on “NCTA The Internet & Television Association” on July 30 of this year, which gave the trade group six months to either use the name or lose the mark.

Describing the new logo, NCTA said it was meant to project “unity, partnership and energy.”

“The interlocking red circle and blue dot form a purple intersection that represents how NCTA brings together its members for unified positions and speaks with a singular voice on issues impacting the internet and television marketplace,” the association said.

The NCTA applied for the new name back in December of 2012 and rechristened its annual Cable Show convention as “INTX:

the Internet and Television Expo” in in September 2014. The association’s name change comes nearly two years to the day after that Originally known as the National Cable Television Association, the NCTA dropped “television” and added the ampersand and “telecommunications” back in 2000.

After the NCTA registered the possible name change, then changed the name of The Cable Show, the association name change was the other shoe that many were waiting to see drop.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.