DirecTV’s executive shake-up: Chang leaving, AT&T;’s York joining

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV is shaking up its executive ranks.

Derek Chang, who holds the pivotal role of DirecTV’s executive vice president of content strategy and development, is leaving his post at the end of year. He has been in charge of all programming deals at the satellite company.

Replacing Chang will be Dan York, who will become chief content officer for DirecTV. York most recently was president of content and advertising sales for AT&T’s U-Verse pay-TV service. Prior to that he had stints at In Demand Networks, a video-on-demand programming company and HBO.

Chang was one of the industry’s more high-profile executives and a vocal critic of rising content costs, particularly sports programming. He has been with DirecTV for almost seven years.

In a statement, DirecTV Chief Executive Mike White said Chang was leaving to “take his career in a different direction.”

DirecTV has about 20 million subscribers in the United States.

One of York’s first duties will be negotiating a carriage agreement with Time Warner Cable’s two new regional sports networks that are launching in Southern California this October. Chang had already expressed concern about Time Warner Cable potentially seeking too high a price tag for the channels.

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