19. Barbarians at the Gates

Ivan Seidenberg
Title: CEO, Verizon

Edward Whitacre
Title: Chairman/CEO, AT&T

Why Them: Remember how Ivan and Ed got to #2 last year on their lobbying prowess. Well, since then, cable operators have successfully pushed back against the kind of telco-friendly state franchising laws that became infamous in Texas. Cable also managed to keep national franchising from gestating on Capitol Hill (you can thank Kyle McSlarrow and the gang for that). In other states, cable has managed to insert cable-friendly protections in several franchising bills. Meanwhile, the telco execution phase has been mixed. Seidenberg’s rapid rollout of FiOS to hundreds of franchise areas covering millions of households shows considerable chutzpah. The channel packages get good reviews, and consumer interest is high (Verizon’s Q3 results showed the telco ahead of projections with 100,000 FiOS subs already, and it just announced it will hire 320 more workers in 6 states to meet demand). But Wall Street continues to question customer-acquisition costs that are down lately but still near $1,000 per sub. Meanwhile, Ed’s “U-verse” seems so far mired in a San Antonio slumber. Maybe great things are happening there, but AT&T sure hasn’t become any kind of national threat. At least not yet. The bottom line: Verizon and AT&T are big heavy hitters by the sheer size of their wallets and, admittedly, the undeniable power of their brand names. And cable should remember that these 2 companies have revenues exceeding those of the top 10 MSOs combined. Just the same, it may be another year before we can truly measure their success in stealing cable subs. - MG

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