Sarah Gitchell

SVP, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Counsel for Content Acquisition, Comcast Cable

Gitchell leads a legal team that supports Comcast Cable’s content licensing arrangements, including retrans agreements with broadcast stations, affiliation agreements with satellite-delivered cable services and a range of new media deals supplying content for strategic multiplatform initiatives. Gitchell serves as the lead attorney for the Content Acquisition group, which licenses billions of dollars of content each year. She is a fan of “Supergirl” on The CW. “The heroine has her faults, but she is still a superhero who can save the day and keep my 12-year-old daughter interested in watching a show with me,” Gitchell says.

What advice would you give your 13-year-old self? 

Be grateful for all that you have – it’s the most likely way to best make use of your skills, desires and talents.

Which current programming best reflects the kind of women’s roles you like to see and why?

I’m a big fan of CW’s “Supergirl” – the heroine has her faults, but she is still a superhero who can save the day and keep my 12-year-old daughter interested in watching a show with me. Calista Flockhart’s media mogul character, Cat Grant, is also a real scene-stealer whenever she is on.

What’s been the biggest story in cable this year? 

The overarching theme that it’s no longer “business as usual” – just by way of example, the NFL’s ratings are down, you don’t need a set-top box to get cable TV, and the “network” with the third most Emmys (Netflix) hasn’t ever been a broadcast or cable network.