Charter Communications has hired video and advanced ad technology vet Stephanie Mitchko as its new EVP and chief technology officer, where she'll oversee Charter's network, mobile, video and software engineering teams.

Mitchko, who will also lead Charter's network architecture, tech policy and emerging technology organizations, succeeds Jay Rolls, who retired in the spring. She reports to Rich DiGeronimo, Charter's chief product and technology officer, and will have offices in Stamford, Conn., and Denver, Colo.

It's not immediately clear how Mitchko's hiring might alter Charter's technology strategies or product roadmaps. The company launched mobile services last year, recently completed the network deployment of DOCSIS 3.1 and has centered its in-home video strategy on its hybrid QAM/IP WorldBox platform and a cloud-powered guide. In January 2019, Charter introduced an app and device purchasing program centered on the Apple TV.

Figure 1: Stephanie Mitchko Charter's new CTO will have offices at Charter's headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and in Denver, Colo.

Mitchko most recently was CTO and COO of Cadent, an ad-tech specialist focused on data-driven TV ad sales systems.

Her move to Charter reconnects her with Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge, as both previously were top execs at Cablevision. At Cablevision, Mitchko was SVP of video infrastructure software, where she played a major role in the development of Cablevision's pioneering remote-storage DVR (RS-DVR) service for set-top boxes. The service made individual copies of customer-selected recordings to adhere to copyright rules.

Cablevision's RS-DVR work was also championed by Rutledge, who was Cablevision's COO at the time, and was challenged in the courts. Cablevision's RS-DVR is also a precursor of sorts to today's more common cloud DVR services. Today's US cloud DVR services continue to make individual copies of recorded programs but are more agile in the sense that consumers can stream and download those recordings to smartphones, web browsers and other connected devices.

Mitchko holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University in New York, teaches as a guest lecturer at NYU Stern School of Business and is a member of the NYU Poly Enterprise Learning Board.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading