Vote now to decide who is the most powerful person in the U.S. video industry: 2018

UPDATE: Voting has ended for round one. View the full results here.

Like FierceWireless is doing this year and has done in years past, FierceVideo is letting our readers pick the most powerful person in the U.S. video industry for 2018.

Every workday for the next five days, we’re going to run a new round of voting in a tournament-style bracket. Voting starts each morning as soon as each new matchup is published and ends roughly 24 hours later (except this weekend, when voting will remain open until Monday morning). By Tuesday of next week, we’ll announce the winner. We’re using Polldaddy.com for the actual voting, and repeated voting is prohibited with a block to cookies and IP addresses.

The first bracket is below, and it is filled with names of executives at major broadcasters, programmers, distributors and regulatory agencies from across the media and entertainment industry. The list was chosen by the editorial staff at FierceVideo, but the winner will be decided by our readers. Below that are the actual matchups that you can vote on. Below that, you’ll find the full list of candidates for the position and a short write-up explaining why each of them is on the list.

How you vote for who is the most powerful is up to you. You can base your decision of the number of subscribers or annual revenue at his or her company. You can choose innovation or disruption as the key metric in making your decision. Or you can just go with whoever has the most money to throw around. But in the end, only one person from the list will win. — Ben | @fierce__video

FV powerful people list first round bracket
 
 

Reed Hastings: As CEO of Netflix, Hastings oversees the biggest subscription streaming service in the U.S. along with a growing international business.

Bob Iger: As CEO of Disney, Iger runs a diverse company that includes hugely popular cable and broadcast networks, studios and franchises.

Brian Roberts: As CEO of Comcast, Roberts is at the head of the most powerful cable company in the U.S. and a massive media conglomerate.

John Donovan: As CEO of AT&T Communications, Donovan runs DirecTV, the biggest U.S. pay TV provider and home of one of the biggest virtual MVPDs.

John Stankey: As CEO of WarnerMedia, Stankey runs HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. along with the subscription streaming service coming in late 2019.

Jennifer Salke: As head of Amazon Studios, Salke runs the content arm of one of the biggest and most well-financed subscription streaming services in the U.S.

Tom Rutledge: As CEO of Charter, Rutledge leads one of the biggest cable operators in the U.S.

Charlie Ergen: As chairman at Dish Network, Ergen guides the second biggest satellite TV operator in the U.S. and the biggest virtual MVPD.

Joe Ianniello: As acting CEO of CBS, Ianniello has assumed the reins at a major broadcaster and a streaming empire including CBS All Access.

Steve Burke: As CEO of NBCUniversal, Burke runs a media conglomerate amassing networks, studios and streaming platforms.

Randy Freer: As CEO of Hulu, Freer runs the third largest streaming company in the U.S. and an up-and-coming virtual MVPD.

Susan Wojcicki: As CEO of YouTube, Wojcicki is in charge of the biggest ad-supported video platform, a fast-growing vMVPD, an original content lineup and more.

Rupert Murdoch: As executive chairman at 21st Century Fox, Murdoch is the key figure at a transitioning media empire with big transactions underway.

David Zaslav: As CEO of Discovery Inc., Zaslav runs a vast cable network empire encompassing Discovery and the recently acquired Scripps.

Jeff Binder: As executive vice president of home and entertainment at T-Mobile, Binder is at the forefront of T-Mobile’s much-anticipated move into pay TV.

Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg: As heads of worldwide video programming at Apple, Erlicht and Van Amburg are the brains behind Apple’s big push into original programming.

Shari Redstone: As president at National Amusements, Redstone runs a media empire with controlling interests in CBS and Showtime.

Bob Bakish: As CEO of Viacom, Bakish is leading the still-nascent resurgence of a once-mighty cable network group and studio system.

Makan Delrahim: As assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Justice Department, Delrahim is a top anticompetitiveness watchdog and a key figure in the DOJ’s challenge of the AT&T-Time Warner merger.

Ajit Pai: As chairman of the FCC, Pai is a deciding factor in many of the most impactful rules and regulations that touch the media and entertainment industry.

Mark Zuckerberg: As CEO of Facebook, Zuckerberg is helping to drive video platform innovations and fuel a growing original video content machine.

Dexter Goei: As CEO of Altice USA, Goei oversees one of the U.S.’ largest cable operators and a growing advanced advertising business.

Josh Sapan: As CEO of AMC Networks, Sapan runs some of the top cable networks in the U.S. and a handful of growing subscription streaming services.

Chris Ripley: As CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Ripley runs a major U.S. broadcasting group with more than 200 television stations nationwide.

Tom Leighton: As CEO of Akamai, Leighton sits at the head of a key U.S. provider of CDN services and video technologies.

Marvin Edwards: As CEO of Commscope, Edwards runs a big network infrastructure provider in the process of buying major pay TV supplier ARRIS.