Comcast Overview

A media and technology firm called Comcast Corp (Comcast) provides cable services, video services, voice-over-internet-protocol services, and high-speed internet services. In addition to public access and government programs, the corporation provides cable services through local broadcast stations, national broadcast networks, and national and regional cable networks. The corporation also offers a wide range of communication goods and services, as well as entertainment, news, and informational content like sports. Under the brands Xfinity, NBCUniversal, Sky, and Comcast, it provides services. Small and medium-sized businesses, as well as residential and commercial clients, are served by the business. It conducts business in the US, Europe, and other places. In the US, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is home to Comcast’s headquarters.

History of Comcast

Ralph J. Roberts and his two business partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, acquired American Cable Systems from its parent company, Jerrold Electronics, for $50,000 in 1963 as a corporate spin-off. With only five channels and 12,000 subscribers at the time, Tupelo, Mississippi’s American Cable was a modest cable provider. American Cable Systems acquired Storecast Corporation of America, a marketing company that specialized in product placement in supermarkets, in 1965. The first Muzak franchise was acquired by American Cable Systems in 1968. Muzak is a brand of background music that is played in retail establishments. Muzak had Storecast as a customer.

In 1969, the business was once again established in Pennsylvania under the name Comcast Corporation. On June 29, 1972, Comcast made its initial public offering, with a $3,010,000 market capitalization. With 20,000 users in western Pennsylvania and a five-night free trial, HBO was originally introduced on a Comcast system in 1977, with a 15% sign-up rate. Comcast acquired 26% of Group W Cable, a broadcasting firm, in 1986, tripling its subscriber base to one million. Comcast invested $380 million in QVC as a founding investment in the same year. In an agreement with Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast was able to acquire a 50% stake in SCI Holdings in 1988. In 1988, Comcast paid $230 million to purchase American Cellular Network Corporation.

Brian L. Roberts, the son of Ralph Roberts, took over as Comcast’s president in February 1990. Two years later, Metromedia’s cellular phone assets in the Philadelphia region, Metrophone, were acquired by the company’s mobile branch, Comcast Cellular, for a majority stake. In 1994, Comcast held 50% of Garden State Cable, a cable communications provider with about 195,000 subscribers at the time. In the same year, Comcast acquired the American branch of Maclean-Hunter for $1.27 billion, making it the third-largest cable operator in the country with over 3.5 million subscribers. The following year, Comcast added 4.3 million new customers after paying $1.575 billion in stock to acquire E. W. Scripps Company’s cable business.

With its contribution to the @Home Network’s establishment in 1996, Comcast provided internet service for the first time. Comcast created Comcast Spectacor in 1996 as well, and it eventually acquired ownership of the Philadelphia Flyers. Microsoft made a $1 billion investment in Comcast in 1997, the same year the business introduced its digital TV service. In the same year, the company acquired a 50.1% controlling stake in E! Entertainment through a partnership with Disney. The cities of Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Orange County, California, Sarasota, and Union, New Jersey had access to it by December 31, 1997.

Comcast stated on February 25 2020, that it would pay an unknown amount to acquire Xumo from the Panasonic/Viant joint venture. [210] The purchase of the service—which will continue to run independently, albeit under the umbrella of Comcast’s cable television division—results primarily from Xumo’s alliances with smart TV producers, such as LG, Panasonic, and Vizio. This would enable Comcast to use Xumo’s positioning to market or showcase Xfinity and other Comcast services as well as use its technology to create additional streaming platforms.

The company and Charter Communications announced in April 2022 that they will partner in a 50/50 partnership to create a streaming platform using Comcast’s Flex platform, XClass TVs, and the Xumo streaming service.

Divisions and subsidiaries

Xfinity

Cable television, high-speed internet, and home phone services are all offered by Comcast Cable, which operates under the brand name Xfinity. Similar services are also offered by Comcast Cable to Fortune 1000 organizations and small- to medium-sized businesses under the Comcast Business and Comcast Enterprise brands, respectively.

NBCUNIVERSAL

In addition to producing its own original content for subscribers and users of other competing television services, the company provides its own customers with access to third-party television programming. Comcast Newsmakers, the company SportsNet, SportsNet New York, MLB Network, The Golf Channel, Syfy, and USA Network are all wholly or partially owned the company programs. Disney and ESPN signed a deal on May 19, 2009, allowing Comcast Corporation to carry ESPNU and ESPN3.

Dream works Animation

On August 22, 2016, NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation, along with its key intellectual property portfolio, which includes Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, Madagascar, and Big Idea Entertainment, which is home to the renowned VeggieTales Christian computer-animated direct-to-video franchise.

SkyGroup

Through Sky, Comcast provides its consumers and subscribers in a number of European nations, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, with any first-party and third-party television programming via the satellite distribution system. With 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 staff members as of 2019, it is the largest media firm and pay-TV broadcaster in Europe by revenue (as of 2018).

Xclass TV

Comcast unveiled its XClass TV smart TV platform on October 19, 2021. Along with their own VIDAA/VIDAA U, Roku TV, and Android TV models, Hisense also makes these TVs.

Controversies

Comcast received the 2014 “Worst Company in America” award in April 2014. This annual competition is run by the consumer affairs blog The Consumerist and determines the least popular company in America through a series of reader polls. the company had previously received this distinction in 2010, making this the second time they had received it.

An impartial organization that conducts shareholder research called Corporate Library gave Comcast an “F” grade in 2010 for their corporate governance standards. According to Corporate Library, the fact that a number of the directors either worked for the company or had business ties to it (making them susceptible to management pressure), and that a third of the directors were over 70 years old, seriously hampered the company’s board of directors’ ability to oversee and control management (at least in 2010). Nearly two-thirds of the flights made by Comcast’s $40 million corporate jet, which was purchased for business trips connected to the NBCU acquisition, went to CEO Brian Roberts’ private residences or resorts, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The self-regulatory National Advertising Review Board ordered Comcast to stop using the claim that it has “America’s fastest internet” in February 2017. the company argued that “Ookla’s data showed only that Xfinity consumers who took advantage of the free tests offered on the Speedtest.net website subscribed to tiers of service with higher download speeds than Verizon FiOS consumers who took advantage of the tests” and that the claim was based on Speedtest.net data. Additionally, they were told to discontinue using an unsupported claim that the business provides the “fastest in-home Wi-Fi.”

Comcast is the final significant cable provider or streamer, as of fall 2019, to fail to carry the ACC Network, leading some subscribers to think about cutting the cord or moving providers. The collegiate sports network’s exclusion was condemned by Forbes magazine for breaking the marketing maxim “never give your customers a cause to switch.” Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, requested that Comcast and AT&T offer the network, and AT&T agreed to do so on their U-Verse cable service.

The Viamedia, Inc. antitrust action was the subject of a Comcast petition for review by the Supreme Court in June 2021; the Biden administration had advised against review.