CableOhio Cable Telecommunications Association iews Issue 4 2016 Cable’s evolution continued in 2016 In the ever-evolving cable industry, to place its small cell facilities. The OCTA and the cable industry change is a seemingly permanent fixture, were able to address several deficiencies in the proposal, allowing and 2016 was no exception. OCTA to move from “opposed” to “neutral” on the measure. See Capital Update on Page 3 for additional details. Perhaps the highest profile change in Ohio’s cable landscape was completion Sales Tax on Advertising: Late in 2015, the Ohio Department of of Charter Communications’ transactions Taxation issued an updated Information Release that unmistakably with Time Warner Cable and Bright House targeted digital advertising fees for imposition of the sales tax. Networks. Soon, you’ll get to know them Legislation introduced by Rep. Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, corrected by the name Spectrum. In this issue, this bureaucratic overreach and was signed into law in July. we’re pleased to have an OCTA Face to Jonathon McGee, Face conversation with Gary Underwood, Utility Service Tax: I would be remiss in not noting the legislature’s OCTA Executive Director regional vice president, Midwest region, repeal of the utility service tax, a local tax option that had been government affairs for Charter Communications. sitting on the books for 50 years but had never been used. While it’s debatable how practical the tax option would have been Change was afoot in northwest Ohio as well, as Buckeye when it was first created, the countless changes in technology CableSystem announced it is changing its name to Buckeye and competition in the telecom and utilities arena, even the way Broadband to better reflect the company’s direction and the people use “utilities,” made the UST a relic of a bygone era. importance of high-speed internet. For more on the latest from the legislative and regulatory fronts, Not surprisingly, the growth of technology was at the heart of please see Capital Update on Page 3. some industry-related deliberations before the legislature: No doubt 2017 promises to be another active year, both in the Small Cell Amendment: During the recently-concluded lame duck industry and at the Statehouse. Thank you for your continued session, AT&T made a push for easier access to municipal property support and best wishes for a happy 2017! Fox’s Rosen to Speak at OCTA Luncheon James Rosen, chief Washington department’s official video of a press briefing. correspondent for Fox News and acclaimed author, will be the featured speaker Before joining Fox News, Rosen worked as a researcher to CBS at the Ohio Cable Telecommunications News anchor and managing editor Dan Rather; as an anchor/ Association’s 22nd Annual Legislative reporter at WREX-TV (NBC) in Rockford, Illinois and at News12/ Luncheon. The Bronx; and in production roles at WWOR-TV and NY-1 News in New York. The event will be March 1 at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel. Rosen is the author of The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate (2008) and Cheney One on One: A Candid James Rosen, Across his two decades with Fox News, Conversation with America’s Most Controversial Statesman (2015). Chief Washington Correspondent, Fox News Rosen has covered the White House and He is the editor of A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth State Department beats and filed from Century, a collection of eulogies by the late William F. Buckley, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the campaign trail, Jr. that has spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller forty-nine states and three dozen countries on five continents. He list this season. Rosen’s articles have appeared in the New York has broken many exclusive stories on subjects ranging from ISIS to Times, the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Playboy Hillary Clinton’s private server. When the Obama administration and National Review, among others. designated him a criminal “co-conspirator” for breaking news on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, the case triggered Born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, Rosen earned his a national controversy over press freedoms and made Rosen bachelor’s degree in political science from The Johns Hopkins a rallying point for champions of the First Amendment. More University and his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern recently, the State Department was forced to apologize for having University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Washington improperly excised Rosen’s tough questioning on Iran from the with his wife and two sons. 1 Face to Face with Gary Underwood of Charter Communications Jonathon McGee: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where did you Fast Facts: grow up? Team Colors: Dallas Cowboys. Thanks to Ezekiel Elliott, it’s an even better time to be a Cowboys fan. Gary Underwood: I was born in Canton. When I was seven, Ezekiel Elliott has helped make the transition we moved to southeast Texas. I grew up between Houston to Scarlet and Gray. and Beaumont in a place called Liberty County. I lived Last Movies Seen: “Allied” there most of my life and still have a home down there. Currently Reading: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. That’s where my family lives. I graduated from Texas State University. Quote to Live by: Always trust your instincts. JM: You’ve been active in the cable industry for years. Tell us affairs. We have a community relations component. We are how you first got involved. adding on to this team in Columbus, someone who will be the director of government and community relations. That GU: I started working for Time Warner Cable in 2001 in individual will be responsible for community affairs programs Beaumont, Texas, and then in 2006, I was transferred to that we are doing, for example some of the philanthropic Time Warner Cable in Dallas. We had just taken over the events, partnerships and so forth. Really doing a lot of the system from Comcast as part of a larger industry transaction grassroots work for our government affairs team at the and property swap. I ultimately became their VP of Statehouse and in city governments across the footprint. Communication and Community Affairs and was there until about 2012. I did some consulting for about a year and JM: There’s been a lot in the news this year about Charter’s then came to Charter with a lot of my former colleagues merger with Time Warner Cable as well as Bright House from Time Warner working in what was then the southwest Networks. Can you tell us about that merger? region of Charter. It was right after Mr. (Tom) Rutledge had come to Charter and had begun reshaping the company and GU: When we announced the transaction, we set out to doing the same very positive things that you are now seeing do something unique: Combine three companies (Bright across the new footprint. House, Charter and Time Warner Cable), pick the best of the best from each and combine them into one organization JM: You are regional vice president, Midwest region, that would deliver a superior network, superior products government affairs for Charter Communications. Tell us and services, simple packaging and simple pricing across about your responsibilities with the company. the footprint. When you think about it, historically in the cable industry, when you would move from state to state, GU: There are five regions for government affairs in the you might have the same company servicing you, but your company. Each of the regions has its hub in one of the large package looked somewhat different, your pricing looked states in the footprint of Charter. As a hub, Ohio anchors different. You go to Nordstrom in Columbus or Dallas and the Midwest region, which has a total of eight states: Ohio, you should be able to buy a shirt for around the same price. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Why shouldn’t your experience be the same with your video Virginia and Wisconsin. and internet provider? So, our company takes the view that pricing should be simple, it should be consistent, it should JM: Pretty much the Big Ten. be easy to sell on the phone and it should be easy for our customers to acquire whenever they would like to do that. GU: Right! My role is to handle state and local government Continued on page 7 2 Capital Update Legislative Update was elected by his colleagues to serve as the Ohio Senate’s next president, succeeding term-limited Republican Keith The Ohio House and Ohio Senate wrapped up their work for Faber. Faber was elected to the Ohio House on Nov. 8. You the 131st Ohio General Assembly in December. And the time can read our 2016 Cable Views interview with Obhof here: between the November election and before they went home http://bit.ly/ObhofCV2016 (colloquially known as “lame duck”) was quite busy. Any legislation not wrapped up by the time the General Assembly PUCO Update adjourned would have to be re-introduced in January and start the process again; hence the rush at the end of the year. Petricoff Resignation: Veteran attorney and Kasich appointee to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Howard Petricoff, Small Cell Amendment: The busy lame duck session saw AT&T announced his resignation from the PUCO on Dec. 2, a day push for easier access to municipal property to place its small after the Ohio Senate Pubic Utilities Committee recommended, cell facilities. The OCTA and the cable industry noted several along party lines, that he not be confirmed for the post by the deficiencies with the proposal which we fought to correct.