As if U.S. cable TV executives don’t have enough to worry about these days, what with the faltering economy, growing competition from phone and satellite rivals and now: irate shareholders.

Comcast, the U.S. largest cable operator, received a letter from one of its largest shareholders calling for the head of Chief Executive Brian Roberts. Chieftain Capital Management, an investment advisory firm with around 60 million Comcast shares or 2 percent of the outstanding float, is deeply unhappy with the 40 percent drop in the stock last year. We have a link to the letter here via Pali Research.

Chieftain — which manages around $5 billion in funds of which Comcast is just under a third — believes Roberts’ reluctance to take on more debt to buy back more shares or to pay a regular dividend are just a few of the missteps that led to the shares’ current parlous state.

“We want and deserve the best CEO Comcast’s board of directors can find — and, based on his record, Brian Roberts is not it,” said the Chieftain letter.

According to Chieftain, Comcast’s management has been a “Comcastrophe” a play on Comcast’s “Comcastic” ad campaign. Ouch.

But it’s not all bad for Roberts.

Comcast’s PR folks were quick to point us to Institutional Investor magazine’s survey of portfolio managers and analysts for the Best CEO in the cable and satellite sector, which was published this week. No prizes for guessing the survey’s favorite cable guy is Roberts.

Also Richard Greenfield of Pali Research doesn’t agree with Chieftain’s thinking that Comcast needs to lever up because, as he sees it, the company is in a ‘war’ with everyone from phone and satellite companies to Apple and wireless and needs to spend more to win.

Others think that if Comcast commits to returning some of its free cash flow to investors as a regular dividend that might make the stock more attractive to a wider range of investors. See our analysis here.

(Photo: Reuters)