A Look at My First Year Leading ACA Connects

By Grant Spellmeyer, ACA Connects President & CEO

At last year’s Independent Show in Orlando, I donned my CEO T-shirt for the first time, symbolically marking the beginning of my tenure as President and CEO of ACA Connects. As we get ready to reconvene in Minneapolis next month, I find myself reflecting on the remarkable journey of the past year. I am thrilled with the progress we have made, and I know that the best is yet to come!

As promised, much of my first year was spent on the road meeting face-toface with leaders of ACA Connects Members. I was honored to attend two Cable Hall of Fame Dinners in Manhattan to see the induction of ACA Connects Chairman Patricia Jo Boyers, Cable One CEO Julie Laulis and Mediacom EVP of

Programming and Human Resources

Italia Commisso Weinand. Another highlight was joining WOW! Internet, TV & Phone CEO Teresa Elder in Florida to announce WOW!’s $45,000 donation to the Goldsboro Elementary Magnet School Kids Space Center in Sanford.

It was great grabbing lunch in Winchester, Virginia, with Shentel EVP & COO Ed McKay and VP of Industry Affairs and Regulatory Chris Kyle to learn about the company’s ambitious Glo Fiber deployments in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

I knocked on the door at Armstrong in Pennsylvania to visit with President Jeff Ross; at Mediacom in New York to see the senior management team; at Buckeye Broadband in Ohio to connect with President & General Manager Geoff

Top left: ACA Connects President & CEO Grant Spellmeyer dons a CEO T-shirt for the first time at last year's Independent Show in Orlando, Florida.

Top right: ACAC CEO Spellmeyer as WOW! Internet, TV & Phone donates $45,000 to the Goldsboro Elementary Magnet School in Sanford, Florida.

Right middle: ACAC CEO Spellmeyer with ACAC Chairman Patricia Jo Boyers and ACAC Chief Regulatory Counsel Brian Hurley in New York City, New York.

Bottom: Armstrong President Jeff Ross and ACAC CEO Grant Spellmeyer in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Shook; and at Associate Member Viamedia in Kentucky to spend time with President and CEO David Solomon. Of course, there are many more, and I am sorry space prevents me from mentioning you all.

Another big highlight: I hosted in March my first ACA Connects Summit, which included our 30th Anniversary Dinner and a really special speaker lineup, followed by an important day of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Huge shoutout to ACAC EVP & COO John M. Higginbotham and ACAC Senior Director of Meetings & Industry Affairs Stacey Leech for making this such a memorable milestone event.

I have also spent a lot of time in strategy discussions with National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) CEO Lou Borrelli. I think our two organizations have never been closer. I look forward to seeing implementation of NCTC’s bold and exciting move in April to establish an exclusive Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement. And of course: Please remember to register for the Independent Show, July 30-Aug. 2, in Minneapolis. Here is the link to register.

I would be remiss if I did not pause to say what an honor it has been to get to know and work with the talented and accomplished Patricia Jo Boyers. As our Chairman, Patty cares deeply about our issues and is passionate about making sure that lawmakers and regulators know our concerns. Because of Patty, just about everyone in Washington, D.C., has heard about her family-owned video and broadband provider BOYCOM Vision in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Did you know that Patty has a side gig breeding cattle in her very limited spare time? Her bovine creatures never go missing at the Boyerosa because when Patty builds a fence, you can be sure it is hog tight, horse high and bull strong!

It has been a privilege to lead ACA Connects this past year as it advocates for Members and strives to shape positive outcomes in Washington, D.C., and beyond. Much is at stake. I can assure you we are ready to take on the toughest tasks to ensure ACA Connects Members are heard, respected and treated fairly in the policy battles ahead.

A top area of focus is the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which includes $42.45 billion to be distributed among states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and other territories, for projects that support broadband infrastructure deployment and adoption. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) oversees the BEAD Program. Needless to say, NTIA just released on June 26 a tidal wave of money, representing the federal government’s largest commitment ever toward achieving the goal of ensuring universal broadband service to all Americans.

A key step came on May 30 when the FCC released the newest version of the National Broadband Map. The agency said the updated map shows 114 million broadband serviceable locations in the U.S., with about 8.3 million U.S. homes and businesses lacking access to broadband. That is up some 330,000 unserved locations since the first FCC map was released seven months ago.

The importance of the FCC’s map cannot be stressed enough. As NTIA put it recently: “This version of the [FCC broadband] map –plus additional refinements based on the FCC’s continuing work to resolve availability challenges – will be used as the basis for the state allocations for the BEAD program.”

In addition, the National Broadband Map - along with another FCC map that shows locations with enforceable commitments to deploy broadband under Federal programs – will be the charter on which states and territories must rely in conducting challenge processes and, later, when awarding funds. A process that fails to rely on the FCC’s map could expose ACA Connects Members to needless harm and divert scarce taxpayer resources toward wasteful overbuilding of existing broadband infrastructure.

I can promise you that, going forward, my team at ACA Connects will do everything in our power to limit the ability of states and territories to bring in alternative data sources that override the FCC maps. In our view, the FCC’s map should be the authoritative source in every state and territory for identifying the locations that are eligible for BEAD funding. Deviating from that sensible approach will risk that appropriated funds will not be devoted toward their intended purpose of maximizing broadband coverage and closing the digital divide.

Here is a link to the FCC’s National Broadband Map.

I know that Members are also gearing up for another tough retransmission consent (“retrans”) cycle this fall. I think we can expect TV station owners to stick to their familiar script: Press for big price hikes and, if necessary, pull their signals just prior to marquee events to win the negotiation. Since 2010, broadcasters have blacked out consumers’ access to free TV stations more than 1,800 times, according to the American Television Alliance (ATVA).

The harms associated with retrans abuses are many and well-known to ACA Connects Members. According to S&P

Global Market Intelligence, broadcasters’ retrans revenue is expected to reach $15.4 billion in 2023, up from $3.6 billion a decade ago. In addition, the FCC recently found that smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) pay significantly higher retrans fees than do larger MVPDs. The FCC said small cable operators (defined as having 500,000 subscribers or fewer) paid on average $231.56 per subscriber, per year in retrans fees, while large cable operators paid on average $200.00 per subscriber, per year. That means ACA Connects Members paid on average 16% more than larger operators.

There have been a few bright spots. Thanks to ACAC’s work on the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 (TVPA), NCTC was able in 2020 to negotiate retransmission consent deals with most of the large station groups on behalf of its members. Yet the TVPA alone did not - and never could have - meaningfully narrowed the gap between what large and small MVPDs pay for retransmission consent.

In my short time leading ACA Connects, I have been honored to represent 500 broadband, voice, and video providers covering about 23 million households. ACA Connects Members are taking on some of the most difficult deployment challenges imaginable as participants in the national effort to spread broadband technology from sea to shining sea.

I take great pride in your work and even greater pride in telling your story, sharing your perspective, and advocating on your behalf in the halls of power in Washington, D.C. And because your vision is clear and your voice strong, I know that the hard work that you do back home will yield the results you deserve from our nation’s leaders. ■