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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. ?
