Among the approximately 5,000 people who work for Suddenlink, there are employees named Harry Potter, Robin Williams, Jim Beam, Jackie Robinson, and James Taylor.

This one is the most recent in the the “Hard/Easy” series:

And this one takes a (much-deserved) shot at our direct satellite competitors:

The “Take a Veteran to School Day” program — organized by the West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association (WVCTA) — has earned a trophy in the 2009 Beacon Awards® competition.

Last year, the WVCTA — led by Suddenlink, Comcast and Time Warner Cable — partnered with the History™ channel’s “Take a Veteran to School Day” initiative, to bring together veterans and high school students and educators in West Virginia. Twelve events were held throughout the state in the weeks surrounding Veterans Day 2008.

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller launched the project at Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg on November 10, 2008. More than 4,000 students and educators learned about the importance of veterans in their communities; 19 veterans were cataloged for the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project; and over 60 veterans participated in the events.

This year, thirteen West Virginia high schools will participate in the program between today and Nov. 19, and more veterans’ stories will be recorded.

Sponsored by the Association of Cable Communicators (ACC), the national Beacon Awards competition recognizes excellence in communications and public affairs throughout the cable industry and is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year.

Suddenlink might have open positions in your area. Check here to search and apply online.

NCTA Chief, Kyle McSlarrow, spoke yesterday to the Family Online Safety Institute’s (FOSI) annual conference in Washington, DC. The focus of his remarks:

Teaching children how to use the Internet is about more than showing them how to navigate a computer or web browser; they must also be able to understand where they are going and where they shouldn’t go.

Details at CableTechTalk.

NCTA is the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Suddenlink is a member.

The highly successful electronic equipment recycling (or “e-cycling”) program Suddenlink launched this summer in Jonesboro, Ark., has gained some interest in Webster Parish in northwest Louisiana.

Following negotiations this summer, the NFL Network made Suddenlink an offer in late September. We verbally accepted that offer, started exchanging contract drafts, and were ready to move forward with adding their network to our channel line ups.

Then, the NFL Network withdrew the offer we had accepted.

A few weeks later, the NFL returned with a new proposal that included unacceptable costs and conditions.

To say we are frustrated would be an understatement. However, we remain open to continued discussions and a new offer from the NFL Network, including the offer that we already accepted or any of the other offers we have previously made to them.

Suddenlink has introduced up to 20 megabit-per-second (Mbps) download speeds for residential Internet customers in a number of the suburban Dallas communities the company serves, including Terrell, Forney, Balch Springs, Seagoville, Heath, Rockwall, Royse City, Talty, McClendon and Chisholm.

Search this blog for news on prior launches of this service. Future launches will be announced as they are confirmed.

As reported in today’s New York Times:

In what may seem a media business version of the Stockholm syndrome, television network executives have fallen in love with a former tormentor: the digital video recorder.

The reason is not simply that more households own DVRs — 33 percent compared with 28 percent at this point in 2008 — helping some marginal shows become hits. It is also that more people seem content to sit through the commercials than networks once thought.

Silicon Alley Insider chimes in on this topic, as well. [H/t Michael Willner.]

According to this analyst …

We expect dramatic cutbacks in U-verse CAPEX [capital expenditures] over the next two years. The service has pretty much been a bust. For AT&T, 3Q09 will probably “be identified as the quarter in which the U-verse star started to fade.”

AT&T’s U-verse will not be “getting in stride” or “picking up steam.” There are indications that point to significant pullback on CAPEX for the service in 2010 and 2011. The reason why these are not “hyper growth” times for U-verse is that the main technology used was doomed from the start.