Comcast (1963-2024)

Comcast Corporation (formerly registered as Comcast Holdings) is an American multinational mass media and telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue and the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. Comcast provides services to U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and in the District of Columbia. As the owner of the assets the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is a producer of feature films and television programs intended for theatrical exhibition and over-the-air and cable television broadcast, respectively. It is currently the world's largest media company with more than 53 million subscribers in the U.S. and Europe.

Comcast owns and operates the Xfinity residential cable communications subsidiary, Comcast Business, a commercial services provider, Xfinity Mobile, an MVNO of Verizon, over-the-air national broadcast network channels (NBC, Telemundo, TeleXitos, and Cozi TV), multiple cable-only channels (including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Syfy, NBCSN, Oxygen, Bravo, and E!, among others), the film studio Universal Pictures, the VOD streaming service Peacock, the animation studio Illuminated Dreams and Universal Parks & Resorts. It also has significant holdings in digital distribution, such as thePlatform, which it acquired in 2006. Recent acquisitions made by Comcast include pan-European media/broadcasting company Sky Group in October 2018, and video game company Electronic Arts in November 2021.

Comcast has been criticized for multiple reasons; its customer satisfaction often ranks among the lowest in the cable industry. In addition, Comcast has violated net neutrality practices in the past, and, despite Comcast's commitment to a narrow definition of net neutrality, critics advocate a definition which precludes any distinction between Comcast's private network services and the rest of the Internet. Critics also point out a lack of competition in the vast majority of Comcast's service area; there is limited competition among cable providers. Furthermore, given Comcast's negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. Its ownership of both content production (in NBCUniversal) and content distribution (as an ISP) has raised antitrust concerns. These issues, in addition to others, led to Comcast being dubbed "The Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014.

Leadership
Comcast is described as a family business. Brian L. Roberts, chairman, president, and CEO of Comcast, is the son of founder Ralph J. Roberts. Roberts owns or controls about 1% of all Comcast shares but all of the Class B supervoting shares, which gives him an "undilutable 33% voting power over the company". Legal expert Susan P. Crawford has said this gives him "effective control over [Comcast's] every step". In 2010, he was one of the highest paid executives in the United States, with total compensation of about $31 million.

Board of directors
As of May 17, 2020:


 * Brian L. Roberts (chairman), chairman and CEO of Comcast
 * Kenneth J. Bacon, former Fannie Mae executive
 * Madeline S. Bell, president and CEO of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
 * Naomi M. Bergman, senior executive of Advance Publications
 * Edward D. Breen (lead independent director), executive chairman and CEO of DuPont
 * Gerald Hassell, former chairman and CEO of The Bank of New York Mellon
 * Jeffrey Honickman, CEO of Pepsi-Cola Bottling
 * Maritza Montiel, former deputy chairman and CEO of Deloitte
 * Asuka Nakahara, former CFO of Trammell Crow
 * David C. Novak, former chairman and CEO of YUM! Brands

Corporate offices
Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, Manchester, New Hampshire and New York City. On January 3, 2005, Comcast announced that it would become the anchor tenant in the new Comcast Center in downtown Philadelphia. The 975 ft skyscraper is the second tallest building in Pennsylvania. Comcast has since finished construction on a second 1,121 ft skyscraper, the tallest building in Pennsylvania, directly adjacent to the original Comcast headquarters in the fall of 2018, known as the Comcast Technology Center. As of 2019 the company has a total of 184,000 employees.

Employee relations
The company is mostly criticized by both the media and its own staff for its less upstanding policies regarding employee relations. A 2012 Reddit post written by an anonymous Comcast call center employee eager to share their negative experiences with the public received attention from publications including The Huffington Post. A 2014 investigative series published by The Verge involved interviews with 150 of Comcast's employees. It sought to examine why the company has become so widely criticized by its customers, the media and even members of its own staff. The series claimed part of the problem is internal and that Comcast's staff endures unreasonable corporate policies. According to the report: "customer service has been replaced by an obsession with sales; technicians are understaffed while tech support is poorly trained, and the company is hobbled by internal fragmentation." A widely read article penned by an anonymous call center employee working for Comcast appeared in November 2014 on Cracked. Titled "Five Nightmares You Live While Working For America's Worst Company", the article also claimed that Comcast is obsessed with sales, doesn't train its employees properly and concluded that "the system makes good customer service impossible."

Comcast has also earned a reputation for being anti-union. According to one of the company's training manuals, "Comcast does not feel union representation is in the best interest of its employees, customers, or shareholders". A dispute in 2004 with CWA, a labor union that represented many employees at Comcast's offices in Beaverton, Oregon, led to allegations of management intimidating workers, requiring them to attend anti-union meetings and unwarranted disciplinary action for union members. In 2011, Comcast received criticism from Writers Guild of America for its policies in regards to unions.

Despite these criticisms, Comcast has appeared on multiple "top places to work" lists. In 2009, it was included on CableFAX magazine's "Top 10 Places to Work in Cable", which cited its "scale, savvy and vision". Similarly, the Philadelphia Business Journal awarded Comcast the silver medal among extra-large companies in Philadelphia, with the gold medal going to partner organization, Comcast-Spectacor. The Boston Globe found Comcast to be that city's top place to work in 2009. Employee diversity is also an attribute upon which Comcast receives strong marks. In 2008, Black Enterprise magazine rated Comcast among the top 15 companies for workforce diversity. Comcast was also named a "Top 2014 Workplace" by The Washington Post in their annual feature. The Human Rights Campaign has given Comcast a 100 on the Corporate Equality Index and one of the best places for LGBT people to work

Financial performance
The book value of the company nearly doubled from $8.19 a share in 1999 to $15 a share in 2009. Revenues grew sixfold from 1999's $6 billion to almost $36 billion in 2009. Net profit margin rose from 4.2% in 1999 to 8.4% in 2009, with operating margins improving 31% and return on equity doubling to 6.7% in the same time span. Between 1999 and 2009, return on capital nearly tripled to 7%. Comcast reported first quarter 2012 profit increases of 30% due to increase in high-speed internet customers. In February 2014, Comcast generated 1.1 billion in revenue during the first quarter due to the Sochi Olympics. As of 2018, Comcast is ranked No. 33 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

For the fiscal year 2017, Comcast reported earnings of US$22.7 billion, with an annual revenue of US$84.5 billion, an increase of 5.5% over the previous fiscal cycle. Comcast's shares traded at over $37 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$163.7 billion in October 2018.

Lobbying and electoral fundraising
With $18.8 million spent in 2013, Comcast has the seventh largest lobbying budget of any individual company or organization in the United States. Comcast employs multiple former U.S. Congressmen as lobbyists. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, which has multiple Comcast executives on its board, also represents Comcast and other cable companies as the fifth largest lobbying organization in the United States, spending $19.8 million in 2013. Comcast was among the top backers of Barack Obama's presidential runs, with Comcast vice president David Cohen raising over $2.2 million from 2007 to 2012. Cohen has been described by many sources as influential in the U.S. government, though he is no longer a registered lobbyist, as the time he spends lobbying falls short of the 20% which requires official registration. Comcast's PAC, the Comcast Corporation and NBCUniversal Political Action Committee, is among the largest PACs in the U.S., raising about $3.7 million from 2011 to 2012 for the campaigns of various candidates for office in the United States Federal Government. Comcast is also a major backer of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association Political Action Committee, which raised $2.6 million from 2011 to 2012. Comcast spent the most money of any organization in support of the Stop Online Piracy and PROTECT IP bills, spending roughly $5 million to lobby for their passage.

Comcast also backs lobbying and PACs on a regional level, backing organizations such as the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association and the Broadband Communications Association of Washington PAC. Comcast and other cable companies have lobbied state governments to pass legislation restricting or banning individual cities from offering public broadband service. Municipal broadband restrictions of varying scope have been passed in a total of 20 U.S. States.

Philanthropy
Comcast offers low cost internet and cable service to schools, subsidized by general broadband consumers through the U.S. government's E-Rate program. Critics have noted that many of the strongest supporters of Comcast's business deals have received substantial funding from the Comcast Foundation.

American Cable Systems
In 1963, Ralph J. Roberts in conjunction with his two business partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, purchased American Cable Systems as a corporate spin-off from its parent, Jerrold Electronics, for U.S. $500,000. At the time, American Cable was a small cable operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, with five channels and 12,000 customers. In 1965, American Cable Systems purchased Storecast Corporation of America, a product placement supermarket specialist marketing firm. In 1968, American Cable Systems purchased its first franchise of Muzak, a brand of background music played in retail stores. Storecast was a client of Muzak.

Comcast
The company was re-incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1969, under the new name Comcast Corporation. Comcast's initial public offering occurred on June 29, 1972, with a market capitalization of U.S. $3,010,000. In 1977, HBO was first launched on a Comcast system with 20,000 customers in western Pennsylvania with a five-night free preview getting a 15% sign up rate. In 1986, Comcast bought 26% of Group W Cable, a broadcast company, doubling its number of subscribers to 1 million. Also that year, Comcast made a founding investment of $380 million in QVC. In 1988, Comcast was able to buy a 50% share of SCI Holdings in a joint deal with Tele-Communications Inc. Comcast also acquired American Cellular Network Corporation in 1988 for $230 million, marking the first time it became a mobile phone operator.

Increasing market share (1990–2000)
In February 1990, Ralph Roberts' son, Brian L. Roberts, succeeded his father as president of Comcast. Two years later, the company's mobile division, Comcast Cellular, purchased a controlling interest in Metromedia's Philadelphia-area cellular telephone interests, Metrophone. By 1994, Comcast owned 50% stock in the cable communications company Garden State Cable, who by that year were serving approximately 195,000 subscribers. That same year, Comcast became the third-largest cable operator in the United States, with around 3.5 million subscribers following its purchase of Maclean-Hunter's American division for $1.27 billion. Comcast grew to 4.3 million subscribers the following year with the purchase of the cable operation of E. W. Scripps Company for $1.575 billion in stock.

Comcast offered internet connection for the first time in 1996, with its part in the launch of the @Home Network. Also in 1996, Comcast formed Comcast Spectacor, which became owner of the Philadelphia Flyers. In 1997, Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast, and the company launched its digital TV service. That same year, in partnership with Disney, Comcast got a 50.1% controlling interest in E! Entertainment. By December 31, 1997, it was available in the Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Orange County, CA, Sarasota and Union, NJ areas.

Comcast's cable acquisitions in 1997 were Jones Intercable, Inc. with 1 million customers, and a stake in Prime Communications with 430,000 subscribers. In February 1998, Comcast sold its U.K. division to NTL for US$600 million, along with the division's $397 million in debt. In 1999, Comcast sold Comcast Cellular to SBC Communications for $400 million, releasing them from $1.27 billion in debt. Also in 1999, Comcast acquired Greater Philadelphia Cablevision, and launched Comcast University as well as Comcast Interactive Capital Group.

In November 1999, Comcast purchased Lenfest Communications, Inc. who were the ninth largest cable television operator at the time and were the largest operator in the Philadelphia area. This consolidated Comcast's control over all of the Philadelphia region, and earned them approximately 1.3 million additional cable subscribers. The purchase of Lenfest also bought Comcast the remaining 50% stock of the cable operator Garden State Communications — a company whom Comcast had already owned half of in partnership with Lenfest for years. Comcast quickly replaced the ten-year general manager at Garden State with their own executive, and eventually Garden State ceased operating under its own name and was fully merged to become a part of the Comcast Corporation.

Largest U.S. cable provider (2001–present)
In 2001, Comcast announced it would acquire the assets of the largest cable television operator at the time, AT&T Broadband, for U.S.$44.5 billion. The proposed name for the merged company was "AT&T Comcast", but the companies ultimately decided to keep only the Comcast name. 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 spurred the start of Comcast Advertising Sales (using AT&T's groundwork) which would later be renamed Comcast Spotlight and now effectv, A Comcast Company. As part of this acquisition, Comcast also acquired the National Digital Television Center in Centennial, Colorado as a wholly owned subsidiary, now known as the Comcast Media Center. In 2003, Comcast became one of the original investors in The Golf Channel. After Excite@Home went bankrupt in October 2001, Comcast took over providing internet directly to consumers in January 2002.

On February 11, 2004, Comcast announced a $54 billion bid for The Walt Disney Company, including taking on $12 billion of Disney's debt. The deal would have made Comcast the largest media conglomerate in the world. However, after rejection by Disney and uncertain response from investors, the bid was abandoned in April. In 2004, Comcast sold its QVC shares to Liberty Media for $7.9 billion.

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 created 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, a South Central Pennsylvania-based cable television and broadband services provider and unit of the former Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff company, for $775 million cash. Comcast previously owned approximately 30% of Susquehanna Communications through its affiliate company, Lenfest. In December 2005, Comcast announced the creation of Comcast Interactive Media, a new division focused on online media.

In April 2005, Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced plans to buy the assets of bankrupted Adelphia Cable. The two companies paid a total of $17.6 billion in the deal that was finalized in the second quarter of 2006—after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) completed a seven-month investigation without raising an objection. Time Warner Cable became the second-largest cable provider in the U.S., ranking behind Comcast. As part of the deal, Time Warner Cable and Comcast traded existing subscribers in order to consolidate them into larger geographic clusters.

In August 2006, Comcast and Time Warner Cable dissolved a 50/50 partnership that controlled the systems in the Houston, Southwest Texas, San Antonio, and Kansas City markets under the Time Warner Cable brand. After the dissolution, Comcast obtained the Houston system, and Time Warner retained the others. On January 1, 2007, Comcast officially took control of the Houston system but continued to operate under the Time Warner Cable brand until June 19, 2007.

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.

On April 3, 2007, Comcast announced it would acquire the cable systems owned and operated by Patriot Media, a privately held company owned by cable veteran Steven J. Simmons, Spectrum Equity Investors and Spire Capital, that served approximately 81,000 video subscribers for $483 million.

Comcast announced in May 2007 and launched in September 2008 a dashboard called SmartZone that allowed users to perform mobile functions online. There was also Cloudmark spam and phishing protection and Trend Micro antivirus. The address book is Comcast Plaxo software.

In May 2008 Comcast purchased Plaxo for a reported $150 million to $170 million.

Comcast won the Consumerist Worst Company In America ("Golden Poo") award in 2010. A gold trophy in the shape of a pile of human feces was delivered to Comcast Corporate Headquarters to commemorate the unmatched level of enmity flowing from their customer base to their business. Comcast responded immediately by publicly acknowledging the dubious award and citing ongoing efforts to improve its customer service. One effort to change this is a new app called Tech ETA that allows customers to see exactly when a technician is coming.

NBCUniversal
Media outlets began reporting in late September 2009 that Comcast was in talks to buy NBC Universal. Comcast denied the rumors at first, while NBC would not comment on them. However, CNBC itself reported on October 1 that General Electric was considering spinning NBC Universal off into a separate company that would merge the NBC television network and its cable properties such as USA Network, Syfy and MSNBC, as well as Universal Studios, with Comcast's content assets. GE would maintain 49% control of the new company, while Comcast owned 51%. Vivendi, which owns 20%, would have to sell its stake to GE. It was reported that under the current deal with GE that it would happen in November or December. It was also reported that Time Warner would be interested in placing a bid, until CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes directly denied interest, leaving Comcast the sole bidder. On November 1, 2009, The New York Times reported Comcast had moved closer to a deal to purchase NBC Universal and that a formal announcement could be made sometime the following week.

Following a tentative agreement on December 1, the parties announced that Comcast would buy a controlling 51% stake in NBCUniversal for $6.5 billion in cash and $7.3 billion in programming on December 3. GE would take over the remaining 49% stake in NBC Universal, using $5.8 billion to buy out Vivendi's 20% minority stake in NBC Universal. On January 18, 2011, the FCC approved the deal by a vote of 4 to 1. The sale was completed on January 28, 2011. In late December 2012, Comcast decided to shed the crescent logo and added the NBC peacock symbol to their new logo. On February 12, 2013, Comcast announced an intention to acquire the remaining 49% of General Electric's interest in NBCUniversal, which Comcast completed on March 19, 2013.

In September 2020, The Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation has granted HomeWorks Trenton worth $25,000 for its after-school activities.

Sky Group
Through Sky, Comcast offers any first-party and third-party television programming which using the satellite distribution system to its customers and subscribers across several countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. It is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue, with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019.

Until November 2018, Sky was owned by 21st Century Fox through a 39.14% controlling stake; on 9 December 2016, following a previous attempt under News Corporation that was affected by the News International phone hacking scandal, 21st Century Fox announced that it had agreed to buy the remainder of Sky, pending government approval. However, after a bidding war that included Disney (which was, in turn, acquiring most of 21st Century Fox assets), Comcast acquired the entirety of Sky in 2018 for £17.28 per-share.

Criticism and controversy
In 2004 and 2007, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey found that Comcast had the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service. The ACSI indicates that almost half of all cable customers (regardless of company) have registered complaints, and that cable is the only industry to score below 60 in the ACSI. Comcast's Customer Service Rating by the ACSI surveys indicate that the company's customer service has not improved since the surveys began in 2001. Analysis of the surveys states that "Comcast is one of the lowest scoring companies in ACSI. As its customer satisfaction eroded by 7% over the past year, revenue increased by 12%." The ACSI analysis also addresses this contradiction, stating that "Such pricing power usually comes with some level of monopoly protection and most cable companies have little competition at the local level. This also means that a cable company can do well financially even though its customers are not particularly satisfied."

In April 2014, Comcast was awarded the 2014 "Worst Company in America" award; an annual contest by the consumer affairs blog The Consumerist that runs a series of reader polls to determine the least popular company in America. This was the second time Comcast had been awarded this title, the first being in 2010.

Comcast spends millions of dollars annually on lobbying. Comcast employs the spouses, sons and daughters of mayors, councilmen, commissioners, and other officials to assure its continued preferred market allocations.

Comcast was given an "F" for its corporate governance practices in 2010, by Corporate Library, an independent shareholder-research organization. According to Corporate Library, Comcast's board of directors ability to oversee and control management was severely compromised (at least in 2010) by the fact that several of the directors either worked for the company or had business ties to it (making them susceptible to management pressure), and a third of the directors were over 70 years of age. According to The Wall Street Journal nearly two thirds of the flights of Comcast's $40 million corporate jet purchased for business travel related to the NBCU acquisition, were to CEO Brian Roberts' private homes or to resorts.

On August 1, 2016, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Comcast Corporation in King County Superior Court, alleging the company's own documents reveal a pattern of illegally deceiving their customers to pad their bottom line by tens of millions of dollars. The FCC issued a $2.3 million fine to Comcast after finding that the company was charging customers for unordered services and equipment. More than a thousand customers issued complaints about these unprecedented charges to their bill. In addition, numerous customers reported inappropriate name-calling and interrogation by customer service representatives. Comcast's executive vice president, David Cohen, admitted the company needed to improve their customer service.

On August 8, 2016 an official Comcast employee confirmed that Comcast was changing native 1080i channels to the 720p60 format. "Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: Product, Support, Leadership."

In February 2017, Comcast was ordered by the self-regulatory National Advertising Review Board to cease using a claim based on Speedtest.net data that it has "America's fastest internet", stating 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." They were also ordered to stop using a claim that the company offers the "fastest in-home Wi-Fi," which was poorly substantiated.

As of fall 2019, Comcast is the last major cable provider or streamer to neglect to carry the ACC Network, prompting some customers to consider cutting the cord or switching providers. Forbes magazine criticized the decision to not carry the college sports network as violating a fundamental principle of marketing: "never give your customers a reason to switch." North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper asked Comcast and AT&T to carry the network, after which AT&T did so on their U-Verse cable service.