Building a Bigger Presence in Washington

摘要

Since signing on last spring as Comcast's top lobbyist, Kerry Knott has led a transformation of the Washington office in a way that mirrors the company's vault to the top of the cable industry. From a one-person shop, Comcast's Washington team today stands at nine people and counting. "We realized we needed a bigger presence in D.C. if Comcast is going to be the industry leader," Knott says. Comcast, like the cable industry as a whole, had neglected relations on Capitol Hill since the passage of the deregulatory Telecommunications Act of 1996. Instead, it had focused almost exclusively on influencing FCC efforts to implement the law by drafting regulations, many of which would shape cable's entry into telephone and high-speed-data markets.