Industry and this gathering. Reflecting back on the days of catv, and forward to the broadband era, is to trace an amazing path from Community Television to the expansion of television, and now beyond to broadband. You deserve congratulations for what you achieved as cable companies, as Video Companies and as network builders. You also deserve Straight Talk about what it means now that you are first and foremost broadband companies. You have pledged as an industry to assure that the internet remains open and free. In that goal, we are in violent agreement. We do differ on what that means. We part company, according to your recently filed motion papers, over the socalled internet conduct standard, the requirement that Internet Service providers not engage in conduct that impairs an open and free internet. And goes beyond the obvious bright line rules of blocking throttling, and paid prioritization. The internet conduct standard is the Going Forward rule. Often people say to me, tom i know that you wont do anything crazy in this internet conduct standard. But what about those people that follow you . My response is, i take you at your word. That you will protect an open internet. But what about those people that follow you . The purpose of the Internet Order is not to create an Obstacle Course to test the ingenuity of isps and how they structure certain activities. It is rather to address broad outcomes, not just the bright line rules of blocking, throttling, had paid prioritization. The purpose of the general conduct standard is to address effects that are antithetical to the concept of openness. Namely to not unreasonably interfere with or disadvantage access to the public internet. So too with the application of title ii to interconnection arrangements. On june 12, when this order goes into effect, there will be in effect strong protections to shield against harm to an open internet. And from that point on, we cannot go backwards. Now, beyond the open internet, i want to celebrate today the two great accomplishments of this industry, accomplishments that run from your roots to today and one great new challenge created by your revolution be on Cable Television to become the nations dominant broadband provider. Part one of the story begins with the primary business of Cable Systems when it was video. Cable was an investor in infrastructure, a fierce competitor, and an innovator. The first accomplishment of that era was the coaxial wiring of america. It is something that took an enormous effort by what began as a remarkably entrepreneurial but also fragmented industry. It required a tremendous amount of Civil Engineering and a tremendous amount of ingenuity to me the extraordinarily diverse circumstances of our farflung nation. And it was accomplished against the determined opposition of a telephone industry that recognized from the very beginning the threat inherent in the second wire into the home and office. And it was accomplished despite legal constraints from the industrys offerings that were downright hostile. Is everybody in this audience knows, the investment that set the foundation for todays industry was undertaken for purposes that have almost nothing to do with what the industry has become. What began as a coaxial cable network, designed to retransmit distant broadcast television signals, has become literally an essential part of our countrys infrastructure. The metamorphosis began when sport engineers recognize that fiber and Coaxial Networks could become by to produce very high speed transmissions. In the intervening 25 or so years, the resulting hybrid fiber co. Ask network has become an enviable combination of Cost Effective efficiency and scalability. It has become the enabler of one of the most transformative developments in human history. In the process it is also provided an illustration of the challenges of the challenge, of the challenge and response nature of competition. This is a theme i have tried to focus on during my time at the fcc. For every challenge, there is always a response. Two decades ago, as the cable industry began to expand its broadband capabilities, the telephone industry responded by unleashing dsl a technology that had long existed but had not been deployed in american homes. Both cable and telco customers benefited, and both businesses flourished. The resulting telephone and cable competitions helped bring us to where we are today. Vastly better transmission speeds, and an unimaginably larger and more vibrant internet ecosystem. The second great accomplishment of your industry was the expansion of programming that you and to be fair, the dbs industry, that your Distribution Network facilitated. The great increase in programming is a reflection of an effect that your industrys Entrepreneurial Energy and investment have had on the broader ecosystem. Good Distribution Systems do that sort of thing. They invigorate new uses. Todays viewers may not be fully conscious of it, but the increase in the quantity and quality of programming according to professor david waterman, the most astounding chapter in the history of television. That story can be told in a quantitative fashion as well. The number of Cable Tv Networks has grown from a handful in the mid1970s to over 900 today. The fcc itself stopped counting at 565 in our annual video competition report for 2006. In investment terms, Cable Networks spent only about 250 Million Dollars on programming in 1983. 30 years later, that figure exploded over 26 billion. More than twice the spending of all the National Broadcast networks combined. The result is in a normas inventory of programming. That expansion of programming is seen and heard in shows that push the boundaries of creativity. It also greatly expanded sports programming. We remember when it was the game of the week, and that is all you could see. Now you can watch the Ohio State Buckeyes every week all the way to the national championship. You knew i would get ohio state in here somewhere. If some say this is truly the golden age of television. It is you that made this possible. Like your entry into Internet Access in the 1990s, the creation of so many programming possibilities in this century spurred others to respond including new and potential competitors who use your broadband pathways to deliver video to their customers. Last year at this gathering i said you had become more than about video. That you had become broadband, and your new business had become and would be going forth broadband. Thats true. Last year the cable industry hit a critical Tipping Point. In 2014 and for the first time, the number of cable broadband subscribers exceeded cabletv subscribers. The trend has continued. You have wisely changed the name of the cable show to emphasize the internet. There is a more profound name change going on. You are no longer the cable industry as Michael Powell said yesterday. You are the leading association of leading broadband providers. It is something to celebrate. The recent decision of comcast and time warner to abandon their proposed merger has relevance to this point. Brian roberts leadership and his poignant statement that it is time to move on was not only a thoughtful response, but it was also directionally correct. It is time to look forwards, not backwards. The department of justice reached the conclusion that this proposed transaction would not be in the public interest. It is important to understand that the Tipping Point from cable to broadband came while this transaction was under review. We recognize the industry had changed, and we saw concrete evidence of the new competition and Business Models made possible by highspeed Internet Access. In other words, we recognize that broadband had to be at the center of our analysis, and that video was an application that flows over networks, and that could be supplied both by the owners of facilities and by competitors that use of broadband pathways to compete against the owners of those broadband pathways. This shift has implications far beyond this transaction for the industry at large. When i appeared before you in the Second Quarter of last year at the moment when this Tipping Point was actually happening made happening happening, i made two points. First, i said that we have to assure the openness of Broadband Networks and the internet for all lawful uses. Im living up to my commitment at that time. You can be assured that i will raise this issue every time i am invited to address and an cta address an ncta conference. It is to engage an unusual situation. The only way to maintain that situation is to uphold your responsibilities. Now your principal business is broadband. The service you offer is critically important to all americans. From getting and keeping a job to staying in touch with family and friends, accessing entertainment, engaging in government, not to mention doing schoolwork if you are a student and countless other applications. And the broader ecosystem you help support is extremely important to the creation of american innovation, the growth of the american economy. No as you have changed, so have the issues and the obligations and the opportunities. This is the key challenge for your industry. First, to continue to invest and innovate so that the United States has firstclass rock band transmission broadband transmission. Second to live up to the commitments you have made in the open internet debate to avoid discriminatory acts that will impair the value of broadband and affect the internet for those who make use of its manifold possibilities. There are some factors that can complicate meeting these obligations. We dont have a lot of competition. Especially at higher speeds that are increasingly important to the consumer of online video. A fully competitive marketplace would bring with it intense and constant pressure, pressure to improve just as it did in the days of cable dsl competition. More competition would be better. And that is why we granted the preemption petitions filed by two communities that wish to expand their Gigabit Networks in the surrounding areas, including those where people had no broadband at all. Now i recognize the challenges of overbuilding. To encourage it is not to assume its immediate appearance. And while i know that it is an anathema to your geographically defined way of looking at the industry i believe as some in the industry have already demonstrated that it can also be an opportunity. Let me tell you a story. Many years ago, at ncta when we were trying to grow out of the catv is less, we passed out little lucite paper with papers in which were embedded small, dried flowers. And imprinted on those paperweights in gold capital letters was, plant a flower in the vast wasteland. By bringing competitive alternatives to television viewers, this industry did just that and the video business was changed forever. Then your industry went on to upgrade, to compete with the telcos and dominate broadband. Now the question is whether consumers will have competitive alternatives for broadband. To harken back to what you did before, will you now plant a flower in the competitive broadband desert . I know the only rationale for such an investment is to generate economic return. That is why in the open Internet Order we constructed it so as to put broadband providers in a situation where they could profit from the value of their investments free from any limiting rate regulation. History proves that absent competition, a predominant position in the market such as yours creates economic incentives to use those use that market power to protect her traditional business in a way that is ultimately harmful to consumers. This was chairman powells message in his well celebrated silicon flat iron speech, in which he identified four internet freedoms that were essential for the industry to preserve. This was a recognition repeated often since and most recently in the open Internet Order that it is not just useful, but necessary to ascribe rights to the users of the internet Distribution System visavis the owners and operators of the system. Your challenge will be to overcome the temp tatian to use your predominant position and broadband to protect your traditional cable business. The internet will disrupt your existing business model. I know im not telling you anything you dont know and you know you can take that to the bank. Because it has done that to everyone. My thought today is that you have disrupted your business twice before on the path from catv to cable programmers to broadband. Those who stay on top are the ones who embrace change. In ways large and small, the fcc has done and continues to do what it can to encourage your industry to meet its broadband related challenges and responsibilities. Large measures include the open Internet Orders freedom to secure a return on your investments, while also prohibiting actions that would harm the open internet. The open internet requirements are intended to safeguard the internets dynamism by assuring what your companies that pledged that the internet will remain open and free. The commission has its work to do to clear obstacles to competition. We will proceed to consider whether to adopt a technologically neutral definition of a Multichannel Program to stricter distri butor, and to be candid, i favor a technological neutral definition that includes internetbased companies that choose Business Models that fit in this status. New obligations from congress are also focused on competition. An Advisory Committee is working hard to deliver a report by september on the critical question of security that promotes commercial availability of devices. We must begin a rulemaking to review how to apply the totality of the circumstances test to assess where the retransmission consent negotiations are being conducted in good faith. On these issues, we will seek your comment. We are committed to empowering competition. And one more important thing that has come into focus following are open Internet Order, i intend to ensure that you do not confront excessive rates for pole attachments. Today the Wireline Competition Bureau is issuing a short Public Notice calling for comment on the pending ncta petition for reconsideration seeking to clarify the commissions intent reforms for pole attachments. Once the record is refreshed, my expectation it is that a recommendation will be made to the full commission to take any action that it can to further align cable and telecommunications rates. I know this industry, and this association do not support the recent open Internet Order. As i have made plain hopefully throughout this presentation today, i believe the rules we have crafted provide what is needed to enable an economic return that will justify new investment and secure an open internet. But i also believe that we can note where we agree and not only where we disagree. This year Michael Powell told congress that, quote cable broadband providers are unequivocally committed to building and maintaining an open internet experience. We welcome that pledge. Maintaining, improving, and protecting the broadband Transmission System is the right thing to do. America depends on it. Thank you very much. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the moderator for this mornings first panel. Media and entertainment reporter for cnbc, julia boorstin. First, james dolan. Next the president of Cox Communications pat esser. The president and ceo of liberty global, michael freed michael fries. The chairman and ceo of time warner cable, rob marcus. And the president and ceo of charter communications, tom rutledge. I want to thank you all for joining us or this morning. And on the heels of chairman wheelers comments, i would like to have your react to them. First, we have to address the elephant in the room. I think you guys maybe can work out some deals in the next half an hour. Anything you want to discuss . Tom where is brian . Seriously, and a day m and a, what is the next by thing . Tom we are poised for time warner now and we are not going to comment any further on m a. Tom the world is full of possibilities, but i cant tell you. [laughter] you have something to say. I would like to see us move on to consolidation of markets. Rather than paying attention to the entire country or just individual operators. The one market i know best, new york, which we share, i think consolidation of that marketplace would provide a great deal of an and much more access to resources for the customer and lower prices. I think it would be a great business. Im not sure if i got asked that on a date or to get married. [laughter] i think i am proposing economy in. [laughter] host what are you proposing . [laughter] what i think is that, for instance in new york, if new york was one market, if new york was operated like one market you would see things like wifi distributed throughout the entire marketplace. And that very Important Technology would become ubiquitous through the entire marketplace. The be quick the ubiquity of how customers react in that marketplace pr