36 | MR. FREEZE
Education: BS, Industrial Engineering, and MBA, Columbia University
Why Him? Commisso started Mediacom nearly 20 years ago to offer cable to underserved communities and has tried heartily this year to conserve the pocketbooks of paying subscribers, even offering to freeze Mediacom’s subscription fees if its program suppliers would do the same. While he got no takers this time around, the industry can always count on him to bring attention to important issues. He recently took outgoing FCC chair Julius Genachowski to task for lingering on the sidelines during disputes between cable operators and broadcasters during his tenure, which have been plentiful. In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), he wrote, “In the absence of pressure from the Commission, not a single programmer took me up on my price freeze offers.” ?