The measure of success of a conference is often seen in the one or two takeaways or questions that inspire a change when one returns to the office routine. By that yardstick, the Washington update panel, moderated by Matt Polka, president and CEO of the American Cable Association, made NCTC’s WEC 18 well worth attending. A couple of the important questions that the panel discussion raised for this author include:

• Will the over-the-top video MVPDs (a.k.a. virtual Multichannel Video Program Distributors), such as DirectTV Now, PlayStation Vue and Sling TV, be required to meet accessibility rules that traditional MVPDs will have to meet in late 2018? If these vMVPDs don’t have to follow the same rules, there could be some interesting implications, such as operators dropping cable television service and offering broadband-only service.
• With the fury directed at foreign interference in the U.S. election process, particularly through social media, why are broadcast airwaves being used, potentially via mandate, to transmit television programming of these same foreign actors?

In the above interview, Polka provides an overview of the panel, which was a good warm-up to next month’s ACA Summit, which will be a great opportunity to address the above questions and the many more that are inspired by panels of broadband experts.