Why Is Cable in the Classroom Still a Secret?

And how can local systems better use the organization's resources?

By John P. Ourand

Steve Berry had a rather typical reaction when he first heard about Cable in the Classroom last January, during one of his first days on the job as NCTA's SVP, government relations. He was blown away when he heard about the organization's educational outreach programs. The lobbyist excitedly told CIC's executive director Peggy O'Brien that she was leading the cable industry's "secret weapon."

In that moment, during his first week in the cable industry, Berry faced the conundrum that has bedeviled the Washington, D.C.-based Cable in the Classroom since it was started and funded by the cable industry 15 years ago: Can the organization finally get rid of the "secret weapon" tag? Can anything that's 15 years old still be a secret?

A few weeks later, Nipplegate struck, and Berry saw firsthand why Cable in the Classroom can't shake that secret weapon tag: Cable's lobbyists trot it out to Capitol Hill every time there's a potential legislative crisis. Once the crisis subsides, Cable in the Classroom returns to the background.

Congress' indecency debate earlier this year closely followed that script, with Cable in the Classroom helping the cable industry emerge from the hearings relatively unscathed. But Berry was troubled by what he heard from lawmakers, many of whom were unaware of cable's commitment to education. Even those familiar with Cable in the Classroom aren't aware of the breadth of the organization, which helps put the industry's content and technology in schools throughout the country.

Berry concluded that the industry could be using Cable in the Classroom much more effectively. "I was amazed that this capability was there, and we weren't using it more," he says. "We probably haven't done the job we should have in putting this at the forefront."

Or as O'Brien, who is leaving Cable in the Classroom this month for the No. 2 job at PBS, puts it: "Education is an absolute good--like motherhood. You just want to haul it up there at the right time and the right place. But it is not core to [cable's] business."

The challenge, as O'Brien sees it, is to convince local systems that Cable in the Classroom's initiatives are good for business, from both a government relations and a subscriber acquisition point of view.

The source of frustration is the disconnect between most MSOs' corporate offices and the local systems. "The folks in the corporate offices who look at the national picture totally get what we're doing," O'Brien says. "But it doesn't always sift down to the folks at the local level. That's a challenge for us because we're 10 people. And we have a budget that is not large, so we can't afford an internal awareness campaign."

Rolling It Out Nationally

It's easy to see Cable in the Classroom's value on a national level. Coming from The Wireless Association (CTIA), NCTA's Berry was bowled over by the organization's offerings. "This is pretty impressive stuff," he says. "And it's all presented without a lot of fanfare and chest thumping."

Cable in the Classroom's message is getting through to many federal lawmakers. Take a look at the Federal Communications Commission's website, which has an area called Parent Place (www.fcc.gov/parents), on which Cable in the Classroom is featured heavily. "Those FCC commissioners know that the industry has that going on," O'Brien says. "There are lots of places where we are not a secret."

With Berry's help, Cable in the Classroom plans to make even more lawmakers aware of its

programs by taking a proactive approach that would include members of Congress in some of its outreach efforts, enabling lawmakers to see for themselves what cable brings to local communities.

Also planned is a push to keep cable executives in front of policymakers, as well as leaders in education. Cable in the Classroom set up several meetings between cable executives and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, for example. CIC sits on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills on behalf of the industry. (Other board members include the Department of Education, Microsoft, Dell and Cisco.)

"Because of what we're doing, the cable industry is in rooms now that it's never been in before, and rooms that it should have been in because of its commitment to education and because of what it has in terms of technology and content," O'Brien says. "Part of our challenge is that we're still a secret weapon for the industry. Education doesn't see the education work of the [cable] industry as a secret weapon at all. They get it."

Rolling It Out Locally

How to get local systems to buy into the educational initiatives? The solution is to convince systems that these initiatives are good for business. Cox, for example, agreed to use all of Cable in the Classroom's media literacy campaign, including setting up a website.

"Cox thinks offering all that to parents gives them a competitive advantage in the field. They think it absolutely can drive sales," O'Brien says. "For us, that's ideal. We gin this stuff up, we've got the partnership, we bring them in on the partnership, they take the stuff, they go crazy with it."

Cable in the Classroom has had success with several initiatives, such as its Media Literacy Project, conducted in partnership with National PTA. It is hosting a road show in about 12 markets that gives local lawmakers a chance to connect with their constituents, while experiencing the power of cable's educational initiatives.

"We're not doing a zillion of these," Cable in the Classroom's public affairs director Carol Vernon says. "We're doing them in strategically targeted markets in partnership with National PTA...Those kinds of relationships can have a huge amount of value at the local level. They require local level participation. We have to make general managers and other people in decision-making positions really knowledgeable about what the benefits are and, currently, that's not necessarily the case."

Cable in the Classroom is hoping word of mouth helps its other local initiatives. O'Brien and Vernon point to CIC's Project Cam--a broadband system that uses webcams to connect classes in distant locations and connect distant speakers with students--as one of the organization's biggest local success stories. To help push this out further, Cable in the Classroom has set up a round of conference calls in which system-level execs who have used Project Cam can talk about it with other systems.

"Project Cam is starting to get some traction because systems have used it and they have loved it," O'Brien says. "They get the mayor reading to kids and they get the superintendent of schools there. They get a lot of people who, if they are not on the body that negotiates franchise agreements, they are awful close to it."

To better communicate with the local systems, Cable in the Classroom continues to develop tools that make it easier for them to expand their educational outreach. For its Leaders in Learning initiative, for example, Cable in the Classroom created a website that includes form letters, press releases and PSAs that systems can localize.

"We are marketing directly to the systems," Vernon says. "We're not counting on corporate to take things out to the local level. We need to continue working at a national level and strategically work at the local level in a smarter way."