Terry Denson

Title: VP, Content and Programming, Verizon 

Years in Cable: 12

Education: BA, Harvard; JD, Georgetown

Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: Inspire confidence—know your art.

Dan York

Title: President, Content, AT&T

Years in Cable: 20-plus

Education: BA, MA, MSU

Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: Nose down, work hard, mouth shut.

Why Them? Much as many operators would like to, these guys can’t be ignored… York and Denson, the telcos’ respective content deal-makers, are dug in—and both services made notable inroads in 2011. U-Verse expanded its subscriber universe to 3.6 million by the end the third quarter, and the U-Verse app is now available on 20-plus devices and four major operating systems, including several Android devices. For its part, FiOS claimed 4 million FiOS TV customers at the end of Q3 and has upped its VOD titles to 30,000.

Show Me the Money: Frontier unceremoniously dumped FiOS this spring after purchasing the service from Verizon, citing the high cost of FiOS content and installation.

Year Ahead: Negotiating new programming and distribution remains a tireless effort for both. And then there’s the question of that little T-Mobile acquisition AT&T is gunning for…

Terry Denson

Favorite meal that I can prepare myself: Ossobuco

Favorite restaurant: Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Favorite “going out” town: Paris

Favorite coffee at Starbucks: I don’t drink coffee.

Bands I would actually see live: Prince, Maxwell, Lizz Wright and Carla Cook

If I had to pick a personal theme song, it would be: “Oh Happy Day”

Favorite vacation spot: Anywhere with my wife

Favorite sports team: Pittsburgh Pirates

How many companies have you worked for since graduating from college: 6

Dan York

The one burning question I have for Siri on my iPhone 4S: How can we get more 4s’ in stock?

The biggest innovation in cable over the last year has been: Lagging the many innovations by AT&T U-verse.

Favorite restaurant: Wiener Circle

Favorite “going out” town: NYC

The one thing I tell my kids about success in life: It is found in your passion

Worst thing I’ve ever heard someone say in a meeting: “…and that’s why we deserve a rate increase.”

My best technique for deterring time-wasting office visits from co-workers: Oh, they can tell.

Favorite coffee order at Starbucks: A medium

Bands I would actually go see live: Elvis Costello & the Attractions, The Kinks, Leo Sayer

Favorite sports team: Spartans

Guilty television pleasure: “Toddlers & Tiaras” (is this what our culture has come to?)

When I look at my cable set-top box, I think: It can’t keep pace.

When it comes to retrans, cable operators should: Just Say No.

If I could only have authenticated online access to 5 cable networks, they would be… 100% ad supported. ?

The Daily

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Cable Tells FCC to Say No to Forced ATSC 3.0 Transition

Cable is pushing back against a broadcast proposal for a mandatory ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV transition, saying it would be costly and unwanted by consumers. NAB wants the FCC to require most stations to fully transition to ATSC 3.0 by February 2028.

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