Information about Comcast

Comcast Corporation
Comcast
	Public (NASDAQ: CMCSA)
Founded	1963 in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Key people	Brian L. Roberts CEO & Chairman
Industry	Telecommunications
Products	Cablecasting, Broadband Internet, VoIP, Comcast Digital Voice
Revenue	$24.966 Billion USD (2006)
Net income	$2.533 Billion USD (2006)
Employees	87,000
Website	www.comcast.com www.comcast.net

Comcast Corporation, (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is the largest^[1] cable television (CATV) company and the second largest Internet service provider in the United States. In addition to offering cable television, internet access, and telephone services, Comcast develops some of its own television programming and web portal content.

Timeline

Comcast was founded in 1963 by Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron, and Julian A. Brodsky based on a recommendation from Warren "Pete" Musser, of Harrisburg, who brought the deal to Ralph Roberts to buy his first cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi. The company was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1969, under the name Comcast Corporation from American Cable Systems, though a former insider says that "Comcast" is a derivation of the name "Communications and Broadcasting". Moving into the area of programming content, Comcast became majority owner of Comcast-Spectacor, Comcast SportsNet (in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington DC/Baltimore, MD, metro Sacramento, Detroit, and Houston ), E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, G4, The Golf Channel and Versus (formerly known as Outdoor Life Network) over a period of years. In 2006, Comcast started a new sports channel in cooperation with Major League Baseball's New York Mets, SportsNet New York in the greater New York City region.

Comcast also has a variety network known as CN8, or the Comcast Network, available exclusively to Comcast and Cablevision subscribers. The channel shows news, sports, and entertainment and places emphasis in Philadelphia, New England, and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. areas, though the channel is also available in New York, Pittsburgh, and Richmond. In August 2004, Comcast started a channel called CET (Comcast Entertainment Television). It is only available to Colorado Comcast subscribers. It focuses on Life in Colorado. It also carries some NHL & NBA Games when Altitude Sports & Entertainment is carrying the NBA or NHL. In January 2006, CET became the primary channel for Colorado's Emergency Alert System in the Denver Metro Area.

The UK division was sold to NTL in 1998. After the sale of their cellular division to SBC Communications of San Antonio and the acquisition of Greater Philadelphia Cablevision in 1999, Comcast and MediaOne announced a $60 billion merger which did not occur until three years later (as AT&T Broadband).

In 2002, Comcast paid the University of Maryland $25 million for naming rights to the new basketball arena built on the College Park campus, named Comcast Center.

On January 3, 2005, Comcast announced that it would become the anchor tenant in a new skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia, to be named the Comcast Center, not to be confused with the Maryland arena mentioned above. The 975 ft skyscraper, while still under construction, has topped off and is officially the tallest building in Pennsylvania.

In December 2005, Comcast announced the creation of Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a new division focused on online media.

Presently, Comcast serves a total of 24.1 million cable customers, 14.1 million digital cable customers, 12.4 million high-speed internet customers, and 3.5 million voice customers. The company employs over 90,000 people. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Houston, Detroit, and Denver.^[2]

Acquisitions

Further information: List of assets owned by Comcast

Comcast bought 25% of Group W Cable in 1986, doubling their size. Two years later, they bought a 50% share in Storer Communications, Inc. They bought the American Cellular Network Corporation the same year before combining with Metrophone in 1990. Comcast became the third largest cable operator in 1994 following their purchase of Maclean-Hunter's American division. Comcast owned the majority of the electronic retailer QVC from 1995-2004 when its share was sold to Liberty Media. Following other acquisitions, Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast in 1997.

In 2001, Comcast announced they would acquire the assets of the largest cable television operator at the time, AT&T Broadband (AT&T's spun-off cable TV service) for $44.5 Billion USD. In 2002, Comcast acquired all assets of AT&T Broadband, thus making Comcast the largest cable television company in the United States with over 22 million subscribers. This also spurred the start of Comcast Advertising Sales (using AT&T's groundwork) which would later be renamed Comcast Spotlight. As part of this acquisition, Comcast also acquired the National Digital Television Center in Centennial, CO as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which is today known as the Comcast Media Center.



When it was first announced that AT&T Broadband and Comcast were going to merge, the chosen name for the new company was "AT&T Comcast". That decision was changed so as to not confuse current and future investors in the company, and the merged company retained the Comcast name.

On February 11, 2004, Comcast surprised the media industry by announcing an unsolicited $66 billion bid for The Walt Disney Company, a deal that would have made Comcast the largest media conglomerate in the world. After rejection by Disney and uncertain response from investors, the bid was abandoned in April. It was later discovered that the deal was mostly for Comcast to acquire one of Disney's most profitable operations, ESPN, in an attempt to expand its sports reach. Comcast has since opted to expand OLN's sports coverage with the Tour de France and the NHL, and in the process renaming the network in the United States Versus. Comcast's NHL deal also obligated them to launch a U.S. version of NHL Network by the summer of 2007. The network finally launched in October 2007.

Comcast announced on March 25, 2004 that their new gaming-oriented television network G4 (operated by subsidiary G4 Media, Inc.) would acquire Vulcan Venture's technology-oriented television network TechTV. The deal was finalized on May 10, 2004 - and the two networks became G4techTV on May 28, 2004. On January 11, 2005, Comcast announced that it would drop TechTV from the station's name and again be known as "G4".

On April 8, 2005, a partnership led by Comcast and Sony Pictures Entertainment finalized a deal to acquire MGM and its affiliate studio, United Artists, and create an additional outlet to carry MGM/UA's material for cable and Internet distribution.

On October 31, 2005, Comcast officially announced that it had acquired Susquehanna Communications (SusCom,) a York, PA-based cable television and broadband services provider and unit of the former Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff company, for a net cash investment of approximately $540 million. In this deal Comcast acquired approximately 230,000 basic cable customers, 71,000 digital cable customers, and 86,000 high-speed internet customers. Comcast previously owned approximately 30 percent of Susquehanna Communications.

On April 3, 2007, Comcast announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire the cable systems owned and operated by Patriot Media & Communications, a privately-held company owned by cable veteran Steven J. Simmons, Spectrum Equity Investors and Spire Capital, that serves approximately 81,000 video subscribers. Comcast will acquire Patriot for a net cash investment of approximately $483 million.^[3] By acquiring the niche provider the deal will plug a hole in its central New Jersey service.^[4]

Adelphia purchase

In April 2005 Comcast and Time Warner announced plans to buy Adelphia Cable. $17.6 billion was to be paid (partly in stock) in the deal that was finalized in the second quarter of 2006 — after the FCC completed a seven-month investigation without raising an objection. Time Warner would become the second largest cable provider in the U.S., ranking behind Comcast. As part of the same deal, Time Warner and Comcast would also trade existing subscribers to create larger clusters of customers for each company in various geographical areas.

The changes became effective on August 1, 2006. As an example, Comcast's systems in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex were traded to TWC in exchange for Time Warner's North Louisiana market, which covers Shreveport and Monroe.

Also in August 2006, Comcast and Time Warner dissolved a partnership that controlled the systems in the Houston, Southwest Texas, San Antonio, and Kansas City markets. After the dissolution, Comcast obtained the Houston system, and Time Warner retained the others.^[5] On January 1, 2007, Comcast officially took control of the Houston system, but continued to operate under the Time Warner Cable brand in the interim. As of June 19, 2007, the Time Warner name was officially retired and replaced by Comcast.

Comcast also took over Adelphia systems in the State College, Pennsylvania area.

In early 2007, Comcast took over Adelphia operations in Palm Beach County, Florida and Bartow, Pickens, Cherokee, and Forsyth Counties in Georgia.

thePlatform purchase

In July 2006, Comcast purchased the Seattle-based software company thePlatform. This represented an entry into a new line of business - selling software to allow companies to manage their internet (and IP-based) media publishing efforts. Customers of thePlatform include Verizon Wireless, CNBC, Scripps, CourtTV, Amp'd Mobile, and ABC News.

High-speed internet service

Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, offers downstream speeds of up to 4, 6, 8, or 17.6 Mbit/s and upstream speeds of 384 kbit/s (48 kB/s), or 768 kbit/s (96 kB/s) for the 8 Mbit/s downstream package, for standard home connections. In some areas, they are offering 16 Mbit/s downstream and 1 or 2 Mbit/s (125 kB/s) upstream as a more expensive, yet speedier alternative. These differing speed options are made possible by loading a particular configuration file into the modem. Comcast's "PowerBoost" technology delivers bursts of 12 to 16 Mbit/s downstream and 1 to 2 Mbit/s upstream for the first 10 MB of the download with their 6 and 8 Mbit/s packages, respectively.

According to the Comcast High Speed Internet terms of service, customers are provided with dynamic IP addresses.^[6] Comcast has a policy of terminating broadband customers who allegedly use excessive bandwidth. Comcast has declined to disclose a numerical bandwidth limit, arguing that the limit is variable on a monthly basis and dependent on the capacity of specific cable nodes. Comcast claims this policy only affects users whose bandwidth consumption is among the top one percent of high-speed internet customers. Statements issued by Comcast in response to press inquiries suggest that excessive usage is generally defined as several hundred gigabytes per month.^[7][8] However, their terms of service state that a customer's use should not "represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network."<ref name="tos" />

Controversies

After the Washington Nationals baseball team relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2004, Comcast alienated many fans in the area by refusing to add the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), which airs the team's games, to its channel lineup. In July 2006, as a condition of its approval of Comcast's takeover of a portion of Adelphia's assets, the FCC ordered Comcast to enter into binding arbitration with MASN to settle their dispute. As a result, on August 4, 2006, it was announced that Comcast would carry MASN programming starting in September 2006. A price increase was announced as well.

In the Philadelphia region, Comcast uses the FCC's "terrestrial loophole" to avoid negotiations with satellite television services for delivery of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, which is transmitted via a closed-wired system instead of satellite (as its predecessor, PRISM, was a local-only service). This essentially denies competition in the Philadelphia market for games of the Philadelphia Phillies (baseball), Philadelphia 76ers (basketball), and Philadelphia Flyers (hockey). Comcast does, however, supply Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia programming to Verizon for their competing FIOS video service, even though FIOS is not available to residents of the city of Philadelphia.

A smaller controversy arose when Comcast and Cox Communications announced that their systems in Connecticut (outside of Comcast's systems in New Haven, Danbury, and the Northwest Corner — all areas considered to have a sizeable number of Mets fans) would not be adding SNY in 2006, if ever, for varying reasons not fully explained. This came to the anger of Mets fans who would need to switch to satellite to watch games due to all of the state being in the Mets' designated territory (thus, games would not be available through MLB Extra Innings, and most ESPN telecasts would be blacked-out). Comcast's purchase of Adelphia's systems in the state and Cox's skeptical eye towards RSN carriage in regards to fan loyalties (also done with YES and NESN in the past) also could be factors.

Comcast has not as yet agreed to carry the new Big Ten Network that is due to begin at the start of the upcoming 2007-08 college football season. Under the Big Ten's current television agreement ABC/ESPN has the right to choose which Big Ten conference game to air. Big Ten football games not aired on the regular ABC/ESPN feeds have in recent years been syndicated to local television stations and presented as "ESPN Plus" games. The new Big Ten Network will now have the second choice for conference games. Until Comcast agrees to carry the new Big Ten Network, Comcast viewers are likely to miss at least two games involving their favorite Big Ten team. The Big Ten Network is currently being carried via satellite on DirecTV and was recently added to Dish Network as well. The network will also televise each team's basketball games 15-20 times.

Legal controversy ensued when Comcast blocked Bit Torrent by sending a RST packet claiming to be Bit Torrent, and denying the connection. This was through a partnership with Sandvine. This effectively blocks the user from connecting to Bit Torrent, in the same way China's internet firewall would. The controversy arises because Comcast is impersonating Bit Torrent in denying the connection, however further actions have yet to be taken. Recently, a few Comcast users claimed to find temporary solutions for both Microsoft Windows and Linux systems by using a firewall to filter RST packets. This however was later revealed to be futile as it would have to be implemented on both ends--if the other end did not ignore the spoofed RST packet, the connection would be severed on the remote end.^[9][10]

Comcast spends millions of dollars annually on government relationships.^[11][12] Regularly Comcast employs the spouses, sons and daughters of influential mayors, councilmen, commissioners, and other officials to assure its continued local monopoly and preferred market allocations, many of which have been questioned as unethical.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Comcast strongly lobbies against federal "family tier" and "a la carte" bills that would give consumers the option to purchase individual channels rather than a broad tier of programming. These issues continue to garner attention from state governments, Congress and FCC Chairman Martin.^[17]

In 2004 the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey found that Comcast had the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service. Comcast "surpass[ed] $20 billion in revenue for the first time" last year, boasted chairman and CEO Brian Roberts in 2005. Their effective local monopoly franchises, deregulation and a set of favorable Federal Communications Commission policies afford Comcast this success.

Comcast's lobbying muscle and massive campaign contributions provide it monopoly market power in 8 of the top 10 markets. A 2004 study by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that Comcast's skyrocketing rates are due to a lack of real competition – and estimates that "the cost imposed on consumers by [cable's] abuse of market power is between $4.5 and $6 billion per year, compared to what prices would be in a competitive market."

Comcast's ability to provide Internet via their lines gives them a key advantage over satellite TV providersand they have been able to extract even higher returns by offering Internet discounts to cable TV customers. Perhaps more concerning is Comcast's control over what its customers see and read. Comcast has expanded vertically, buying up controlling interests in production facilities and plying its advertising muscle to wrest exclusivity agreements from content providers. "Cable operators are 64 percent more likely to carry the programming in which they have a majority ownership stake," the CFA study found.

Comcast's rein over content reaches into the Internet, unlike telephone companies, which are required by law to grant equal access to competing ISPs – the Comcast blocks customers from accessing competing service providers.

Labor says Comcast is abusive in its employment practices and they have begun referring to the company as the Wal-Mart of the telecommunications industry. A recent study by American Rights at Work, titled "No Bargain: Comcast and the Future of Workers' Rights in Telecommunications", uncovered disturbing practices by the company. Depressed wages, emplyment of a variety of union-busting tactics, and salaries that "are approximately one-third lower than the unionized telephone companies,".

Workers aren't the only ones who've found Comcast difficult to deal with. Increasingly, the company has been playing hardball with state and local governments on franchise matters. Comcast sued San Jose in 2003, arguing that the franchise negotiations process violates the company's 1st Amendment rights. The courts found against Comcast, but the company then appealed that decision. Over 20 state legislatures have launched state franchising schemes hoping to create incentives for competitive investors. Comcasts response in California was to spend over $3 million directly on an opposition media campaign and millions more on direct lobby efforts at events such as the LA Lakers games and lunches.

In Philadelphia, Comcast's corporate headquarters, it enjoys multimillion-dollar tax breaks, yet the company doesn't provide for a single public access channel (PEG) – a standard in any franchise agreement.^[18]

During a Comcast local franchise matter before the city of San Fransisco in 2002 CALPIRG presented support for their claims that Comcast holds a persistent, anti-competitive monopoly. Citing a 1998 Department of Justice suit and comments by then Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein -- "In almost two decades since the Federal government pre-empted most rate regulation and other local oversight over the cable TV companies, the industry has proven to be one of the most persistent monopolies in the American economy. By any rigorous economic definition, it remains a monopoly and continues to engage in anticompetitive and anti-consumer monopoly abuses." "Whenever rates are unregulated, the industry pushes them up at several times the rate of inflation creating large monopoly profits. The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, with its effort to inject competition into the industry, has done little to restrain the abuse of market power. Unchecked by the alleged competition from satellite television, cable rates have increased by over 40 percent since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and basic service revenues increased over 50 percent. While imposing this massive increase in prices, the cable industry has maintained one of the lowest customer satisfaction and service quality ratings of any major consumer service industry. Only monopolists can get away with that hat trick."^[19]

On Monday, October 15, 2007, a woman named Mona Shaw became frustrated with Comcast customer service and entered the offices with a claw hammer. She destroyed some office equipment before being arrested and fined for damages. ^{[20] [21]}

References

• Comcast Press Room (2007). Retrieved on January 29, 2006.
• Comcast Corporate Overview. Retrieved on July 31, 2007.
• Verizon Signs Agreement With Comcast for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Retrieved on December 11, 2006.
• The Year-Long Comcast Saga. Retrieved on December 11, 2007.
• Is Comcast's BitTorrent filtering violating the law?. Retrieved on September 05, 2007.

External links

• Comcast.com: Sales, Stock, and Employment
• Comcast.net: For Comcast High-Speed Internet customers
• Yahoo! - Comcast Corporation Company Profile
• Declan McCullough: The Biggest Spammer on the Net? Comcast?
• Site for the cable networks Comcast controls

•  • [ e] Cable, satellite, and other speciality television providers in the Americas
Cable	Adams Cable Advanced Cable Communications Armstrong Telephone Company Alameda Power and Telecom Allegiance Communications Bright House Networks CableOne Cablevision Champion Broadband Charter Communications Comcast Corporation Cox Communications Crestview Cable Fairpoint Communications General Communications Graceba Total Communications Insight Communications King Videocable MCV Broadband Mediacom Midcontinent Communications Millennium Digital Media Northland Cable Television RCN Corporation Rogers Communications Satview Broadband Ltd Seaport Capital Service Electric Suddenlink Communications SuperTV Tele-Communications Inc. Time Warner Cable Truvista Communications Western Broadband WOW! Internet Cable Phone
Satellite	AlphaStar Bell ExpressVu DirecTV Dish Network Glorystar PrimeStar Sky Angel Voom
IPTV	Aliant TV U-Verse VDC
Terrestrial	Multi-Choice TV (Barbados) USDTV
Fiber	Qwest Verizon FiOS