CHICAGO — Bridging the digital divide in small rural communities is still a top priority and one that can help operators drive sales growth even as video customers dwindle, a panel of top small cable CEOs said at The Independent Show’s Opening General Session.

“Providing that local connection, and not just driving the content of those customers, [is critical],” said Buckeye Broadband president and general manager Geoff Shook at the session titled Hot Topics, Cool Leaders. “Owning that relationship from the edge of the end user’s device all the way through the businesses.”

MCTV president Katherine Gessner added that just providing the service isn’t enough for success. Education is a key part of the puzzle.

Gessner told the audience that in MCTV’s initial moves to convert some newly acquired customers from fairly antiquated systems to fiber-to-the home, they were reluctant to switch, even though converting meant they would get data speeds four times faster than their old DSL service.

“They didn’t understand what you could do with it [higher speeds],” Gessner said. “We found out there was a waiting list for DSL. They didn’t want to switch because they were scared that if our service didn’t work they couldn’t go back.”

For Schurz Communications, president and CEO Todd Schurz said one solution has been to partner with other providers in building out broadband networks. Schurz is currently working with local governments, using some state grants in Vermont and Minnesota, working with telephone co-ops in Iowa, electric co-ops in Minnesota, and Native American nations in Minnesota and Arizona.

“What we have found, all of these are structured differently, there’s no one model that fits everything,” Schurz said. “But it’s something that everybody realizes they need to do.”

“If you can go to some of these local entities and say, ‘You don’t have to build a digital headend, you don’t have to worry about all of that infrastructure, and you can put your resources into upgrading the local network, and we will then take the handoff,’ that seems to work pretty well,” he said.

As the industry moves closer toward 5G wireless services, smaller operators are helping to lead the way. At Shentel, executive VP and chief operating officer David Heimbach said that while his company is moving forward on wireline initiatives like DOCSIS
3.1 — which should be completed by the end of the year — they are also making inroads with 5G.

Heimbach said Shentel is currently trialing a 5G service, but there is still plenty of time before that service becomes essential. Of the 5 billion discrete wireless customers worldwide, he said, only one-third are on a 4G network and only 15% of mobile customers are expected to have 5G by 2025.

“This has a long tail on it,” Heimbach said.

But small operators are forging ahead, building out their networks and providing state-of-the-art service to customers, largely funded by their own coffers.

Gessner said that although MCTV did look into obtaining federal grants to build its fiber network, it didn’t make sense in the long run. MCTV began overbuilding its network with fiber to the home in 2014 or 2015 and last year began acquiring a few small properties near its traditional territory. The upgrades have resulted in strong broadband growth, she said.

“We shut off the analog plant in the first system in November and went from 0% internet penetration to about 20% in about seven months,” Gessner said. “It really opened our eyes to the need for rural broadband.” 

MCTV said it has named Katherine Gessner president, taking the helm of the Massillon, Ohio-based cable operator after her father Robert Gessner retired on April 13.

Katherine Gessner represents the third generation of her family to lead MCTV, founded in 1965 by her late grandfather Richard (Dick) Gessner as Massillon Cable TV. The company changed its name to MCTV in 2013. 

Robert Gessner, who has been a prominent figure in the industry for decades, joined MCTV in 1979 to manage the introduction of satellite services. His duties expanded over the years to include oversight of all operations at the cable company and he was named president in 2002.

Related: The Cable Center: Oral Histories: Richard and Robert Gessner 

“Katherine, without a doubt, will continue to take MCTV to new heights in the industry,” Robert Gessner said in a press release. “She has already made an impact and is being recognized as an influential leader in the cable and Internet industry.”

Katherine joined MCTV in 2013 as the sales and marketing manager and has held several roles at MCTV — most recently vice president of strategic planning and policy — before being named president. She has an MBA from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and a background in management, business and strategic planning.

“I am endlessly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from my dad,” Katherine Gessner said in a press release. “He is generous with his wisdom and perspective and will continue to be an inspiration. It is humbling to step into his role and exciting to continue to build a bright future with such an incredible team. And don’t worry, my dad will continue to be a part of the MCTV family and surrounding communities, even during retirement.”

MCTV provides cable TV, phone, high-speed internet, security, TV advertising and dedicated fiber connection services to more than 50,000 homes and businesses in Stark, Wayne, Summit, Holmes, Tuscarawas, Jefferson and Columbiana counties in Ohio.  

“After 40 years driving the company forward, I have decided this is the right time for me personally and for the company, to transition to the next generation of leadership,” Robert Gessner said in the release. “I have seen enormous change in the telecommunications industry. I like to tell people that I am old, linear and analog and it is time for my highly-qualified, young, digital and distributive daughter Katherine to take the lead.”

Robert Gessner will remain active in the industry -- he is currently chairman of industry lobbying group America’s Communications Association (ACA) -- and has been recognized by local, state and national organizations for cable industry leadership, policy advocacy, community and economic development, and technology advances.

“Retiring now provides MCTV the best opportunity for our growing momentum to continue,” Gessner said. “I trust that with Katherine as the leader, MCTV and the MCTV family will continue turning my dreams, my father’s dreams and the Gessner family dreams into reality. It has been both my honor and privilege working with our team to create incredible memories and touch the lives of so many of our customers and community members.”

"It is hard to measure the impact he had on the company, the industry, so many people and the community at large." —Robert Gessner, MCTV president and son of company founder Richard Gessner

Massillon Cable TV (MCTV) founder Richard (Dick) Winfield Gessner, died at his home in Massillon, Ohio, on July 18. He was 90 years old.

Gessner, a 1950 graduate of Bucknell University, founded Massillon Cable TV with his wife Susan in 1965. Prior to cable TV, Gessner worked in radio and television in Philadelphia and New York, including a brief stint as a page at NBC. 

His first cable TV experience was obtaining franchises in upstate New York, helping the late Paul Harron Sr. launch Harron Communications' first cable systems. Recognized as a Cable Pioneer in 2009, Gessner was one of the founders of the Ohio Cable Television Association and served as chair of the Community Antenna Television Association.

Related | The Cable Center | Oral Histories: Richard and Robert Gessner

"MCTV was very special to my dad," his son Robert Gessner, , MCTV president, said in a statement. "Actually, it was the people at MCTV who were so special to him. He gave so much of his time and energy to the company. It is hard to measure the impact he had on the company, the industry, so many people and the community at large."

MCTV will continue to operate as a family business, now managed by second- and third-generation family members.

"In addition to being a great family man, caring neighbor and committed member of the Massillon community, Dick Gessner was a cable television visionary, a man who saw the future and pursued it with joy and dedication,” said American Cable Association CEO Matt Polka in a statement. “He had a long and legendary career that should inspire all of us.

"In MCTV, Dick Gessner built a company that today enables the Massillon community, including schools, businesses and anchor institutions from libraries to hospitals to universities, to have access to unrivaled video and communications services so necessary to ensure a fulfilling future in a connected world,” Polka continued. “That tradition of excellence established by Dick Gessner lives on through his son Bob Gessner, who is MCTV's current president and the American Cable Association's chair since 2014. That tradition is expected to continue with the next generation as Bob's daughter Katherine takes on more leadership responsibilities within the company." 

SCTE-ISBE president and CEO Mark Dzuban remembered Gessner for his insight and recognition of the importance of technology innovation to the industry as a whole. 

“Dick Gessner instilled in Massillon Cable a keen awareness of how cable’s organizations are connective tissue that keeps the industry together," Dzuban said in a statement. "He recognized how technology innovation could benefit operators of any size, and inspired support for SCTE•ISBE across the small- and mid-size operator community.”

Funeral details are available at the Paquelet Funeral Home website. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate memorial contributions to the Massillon Museum Capital Campaign (121 Lincoln Way E, Massillon, OH 44646).

The following is an edited excerpt from comments by American Cable Association chairman Robert Gessner, president of MCTV in Massillon, Ohio, on March 2 at the 23rd ACA Summit in Washington, D.C.

Though traditional TV service remains important, broadband Internet is ACA’s future. We have established three basic principles to guide our advocacy regarding government involvement in the broadband Internet market:

• Statutes and regulations should be competitively and technologically neutral. They should facilitate network deployments and be targeted to minimize any adverse economic impact on smaller providers and their subscribers;

• Market consolidation and concentration that would harm consumers or competition should be prevented.

• Smaller providers should not be unreasonably disadvantaged. They should be protected from undue market power, unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or other actions contrary to the public interest.

ACA gained a number of policy victories at the FCC. I’ll mention two. First, under a recent FCC order, every cable operator in the country, large or small, is considered subject to effective competition and no longer subject to local price controls.

Second, ACA persuaded the FCC to require Dish Network and DirecTV to pay their fair share of FCC Media Bureau regulatory fees. Dish and DirecTV will pay $4.1 million this year, and I expect that to increase over time.

We do face many challenges. Last year, the FCC imposed Title II common-carrier regulation on us, in one of the biggest policy shifts in FCC history. This FCC action has divided the industry into hostile camps — ISPs on one side, edge providers on the other. ACA is fighting to roll back these harmful regulations. A court ruling is expected in the near future.

Another challenge is retransmission consent. Retrans fees soar while broadcast ratings sink. Why? Because broadcast stations exploit outdated federal rules to gouge viewers. During the past decade, retrans fees have risen by 22,400 percent. SNL Kagan projects MVPD retrans payments will reach $10.3 billion by 2021.

ACA’s persistent efforts encouraged the FCC to open a rulemaking to review its rules that require TV stations and MVPDs to negotiate in good faith. ACA submitted numerous recommendations for determining whether certain conduct is a per se violation of good faith or, at the very least, evidence of bad faith:

Here are just a few:

• It’s bad faith for a TV station to insist on bundling top four-rated broadcast signals with regional sports networks or other “must have” programming.

• It’s bad faith for a TV station to black out linear programming before “marquee” events.

• It’s bad faith for a TV station to black out online programming to gain leverage.

ACA also has been a steady voice at the FCC about the abuses MVPDs suffer at the hands of non-broadcast content companies. Recently, the FCC started a Notice of Inquiry into their practices. ACA will highlight the difficulties ACA members face in providing the services consumers desire.

Another challenge is set-top box regulation. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has launched his “unlock the box” campaign to require new technical mandates to open all set-top boxes to third-party use. ACA thinks this proposal is horribly misguided. It would inappropriately insert the government into a market teeming with participants, innovation and tens of millions of satisfied consumers.