What’s a $145 billion cable company to do when it keeps losing pay-TV subscribers? Judging by Comcast’s recent actions, the answer would be “raise prices,” but the company’s CEO admits that this isn’t exactly a tenable business model… except he’s not talking about cable TV rates. [More]
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Comcast Now Offering Cheap Internet To Some Community College Students
By 9.16.15
Comcast, whose NBC network cancelled a beloved sitcom about a community college in Colorado, is apparently trying to atone for that sin by expanding its more affordable Internet Essentials program to cover some community college students in that state (and also in Illinois). [More]
Fake Comcast Employee Sought In Sexual Assault
By 9.10.15
Even if you don’t have a service call scheduled, you might be inclined to answer the door when someone in a cable company uniform comes knocking. But police in California are on the lookout for a man who allegedly posed as a Comcast employee to enter a woman’s house and sexually assault her. [More]
Fake Comcast Rep Convinces Customer To Delete Anti-Comcast Tweets
By 9.4.15
Complaining to a company on Twitter can often be a pointless endeavor, like trying to have a phone conversation in the front row of a Motörhead concert, but something inside us hopes that our gripe will be heard, which is why pranksters have repeatedly been able to trick Comcast customers into believing the company is proactively calling them in response to their Tweets. The latest story involves a customer who was actually convinced to delete his anti-Comcast comments by someone pretending to be from the company. [More]
North Carolina City Is First To Offer Internet Service That’s 10 Times Faster Than Google Fiber
By 9.3.15
While Google is in the process of deploying high-speed gigabit Internet service in North Carolina’s major metro areas of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, the folks in the much smaller city of Salisbury, NC, are being offered access to broadband that’s several times faster. [More]
Don’t Want To Go Over Comcast’s Data Cap? That’ll Be Another $30
By 9.1.15
Comcast has been testing data caps — they adorably call them “data thresholds” — in a number of markets around the country since 2013. In those markets, if customers cross the threshold, they can be hit with overage fees. But if you live in the Miami area and want “unlimited” data, you can get it — for an additional $30. [More]
Comcast CFO Says Failure Of Time Warner Cable Merger Is “Blessing In Disguise”
By 9.1.15
Comcast spent a year and a half, and untold millions, pushing for regulators to approve its $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. And then, when regulators said they would try to block the deal, the mega-merger evaporated. You might expect Comcast executives would still be stewing about their failed attempt to take over most of the cable and broadband service for both New York and Los Angeles, but at least one C-level suit at the company is trying to put it behind him. [More]
Comcast Hopes To Deploy Multi-Gigabit Broadband By 2018
By 8.24.15
Earlier this summer, Comcast revealed that it will soon be testing an upgrade to its cable broadband network that should allow it to deliver download speeds of up to 10Gbps, ten times the current top speed of Google Fiber. Now the company is giving some idea of how long it thinks it will need to make this super-fast Internet access available on a wider basis. [More]
Comcast Unmasks Anonymous Commenter In Defamation Case
By 8.21.15
Do online commenters have a right to remain anonymous? If their comments are possibly defamatory, should the subject of those statements have to prove the defamation before learning the identity of the writer? This are questions surrounding the story of an Illinois Comcast subscriber who, after a nearly four-year legal battle, has been identified as the writer of inflammatory comments directed at a local politician. [More]
Comcast To Finally Start Including (Some) Elderly In Low-Cost Broadband Plans
By 8.19.15
Comcast’s low-cost Internet Essentials program, cooked up during its acquisition of NBC as a way for the company to look good when trying to appease lawmakers and regulators, has been criticized for having eligibility standards that effectively lock out the elderly and childless. The company even recently fought back against California’s attempt to expand eligibility for the program. But today the company announced that it’s expanding Essentials coverage to include older low-income users, but only in the San Francisco area. [More]
Comcast Continues To Take Over Content World, Invests $200M in BuzzFeed
By 8.18.15
Comcast’s continued plans to spend mountains of money and to take over the world continue apace: as rumored, NBCUniversal has dropped $200 million this week into journalism and cat gif juggernaut BuzzFeed. [More]
Appeals Panel Hands Second Loss To DirecTV Over Rob Lowe Ads
By 8.14.15
Four months after an ad review board, acting on a complaint from Comcast, recommended DirecTV pull its quirky promotions featuring Rob Lowe and a parade of peculiar alter-egos, a review panel upheld the original findings that some of the spots contain unsubstantiated claims — despite the fact the ads are “very funny.” [More]
Comcast To Reportedly Take On YouTube, Facebook With “Watchable” Online Video Platform
By 8.14.15
Comcast didn’t just sink $200 million into Vox Media (and a reportedly similar amount into BuzzFeed) just because it wants to support some websites it likes. The cable/broadcast giant is reportedly looking to launch an online video platform that would include new original content from these sites and other popular sources. [More]
Comcast Begins Devouring Content Creators: Invests $200M In Vox Media
By 8.13.15
After months of staying mum about rumors that it was going to purchase or invest heavily in online content networks, Comcast finally announced yesterday that — in addition to controlling cable, Internet, broadcast & cable TV networks, movies and home video — it also wants to have a hand in the news and information consumers get online, with the confirmation of a $200 million investment in Vox Media, the network that includes The Verge, Eater, Racked, Re/code, Curbed, S/B Nation, and of course its namesake site. [More]
Philadelphia Asks Comcast Why It’s Not Treating Its Hometown As Well As Other Cities?
By 8.11.15
Philadelphia is Comcast’s hometown. Its current skyscraper looms like a giant thumb drive over the city’s skyline and its second tower will only establish Comcast as the dominating corporate presence in Philly. And yet, when Comcast announced its first (and second, and third) markets for a new super-high-speed fiber network, it looked elsewhere. And in spite of the fact that Philadelphia is one of the poorest urban markets in the country, Comcast chose to test an expansion of its low-cost Internet Essentials program more than 1,000 miles away in Florida. With Comcast’s Philly franchise up for renewal, the city is finally asking why its supposed hometown hero is helping everyone else first. [More]
Comcast Makes Slight Improvements To Its Broadband Program For Low-Income Households
By 8.4.15
Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which offers affordable broadband access to some low-income households, has long been considered window dressing for regulators and lawmakers whenever the company has to show that it does something not-horrible for the community. Today, Comcast announced a pair of significant improvements to Essentials, while launching a pilot program that could result in expanded eligibility. [More]
Comcast Still Screwing Up Discount For Elderly Customers In St. Paul
By 8.3.15
Weeks after we told you about Comcast’s apparent ignorance of its mandated discount for elderly residents in the Minnesota city of St. Paul, customers there say the company still has its head in the sand and is refusing to properly honor requests from eligible consumers. [More]
Sling TV Says Comcast-Owned NBC Stations Are Blocking Its Ads
By 7.31.15
There’s a rumble brewing in telecom town: Sling TV is accusing Comcast of keeping its ads off some NBC stations’ airwaves. Which is exactly what the big bad cable company in its recent marketing campaign would do, Dish Network-owned Sling says. [More]
