Are Walled Gardens Set to Go Up Around TV? [NewTeeVee]
GigaOM Network — ... , Comcast says it was in the bidding to obtain the rights to Friday Night Lights, but wasn’t interested in shelling out the reported $12 million DirecTV paid. But moving forward, Comcast says it “might be more aggressive” in pursuing similar opportunities. Comcast COO Steve Burke told B&C: ...

Comcast launches faster Internet plans, however usage cap remains
Webware.com — ... . Comcast's own release prides the new Extreme plan on letting customers "download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter of seconds." Do the math and you'll see that an extreme subscriber could easily blow past the 250 GB cap in a matter of hours. ...

Comcast Lanza Nueva Tarifa Reducida Para Llamadas a Cuba
Business Wire Technology News — ... $39.95 al mes, tarifa que esta disponible para clientes subscritos a Cable Digital o Internet de Alta Velocidad. El servicio Digital Voice de Comcast incluye 12 funciones telefónicas y con nuestro nuevo SmartZone Communications Center nuestros clientes de Digital Voice reciben seguridad y calidad de sonido. Comcast, es la red de fibra óptica líder en los Estados Unidos para Televisión, Internet, y Teléfono residencial. Para más información sobre Digital Voice de Comcast visite a www.comcast.com/comcastdigitalvoice o llame al 1-800 COMCAST. ...

Frontier's CEO Lays Out Just How Much Internet You'll Get
AppScout — ... Frontier is not a cable provider, though they have a relationship with Dish Network. The cable companies sell Internet access along with packages of TV channels, movies and events. What they don't want to see is their core business cannibalized by other services they sell--and that's happening already. My personal example is the Major League Baseball video package I buy. The video's streamed over my Comcast Internet connection. Comcast, who also sells a Major League Baseball TV package gets shut out in my transaction. Of course this little piece of the equation is never ...

AT&T Tries On Data Cap
E-Commerce Times — ... of their connection speed. "This is a preliminary step to find the right model to address this trend," Coe said. The company may add another market to the test before the end of the year, he said. Customers will be able to track their usage on an AT&T Web site. The company will also contact people who reach 80 percent of their limit. After a grace period to get subscribers acquainted with the system, those who exceed their allotment will pay US$1 per gigabyte, Coe said. Other ISPs Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) ...

Comcastic P4P: 80% Speed Boost for P2P Downloads
Broadband Developments — ... Comcast engineers have just released the first-ever real-world data on P4P technology - and it appears to be a massive success. While only a trial, the results show that ...

Comcast's 50 Mbps service comes to OR, WA next month
Webware.com — ... 's cable Internet service in Oregon and Southwestern Washington state will be getting their connections switched over to "wideband." The upgraded service, which ...

Nielsen: TV Viewing Hits Record High
Contentinople: — ... reported Tuesday. It found that the average U.S. home used a TV for 8 hours and 18 minutes per day in the 2007-2008 TV season, the highest record since Nielsen began measuring TV viewing in the 1950s. The record amount of TV viewing comes as the average person surfing the Web spends 27 hours monthly on the Internet, and the average mobile phone subscriber watches three hours per month of mobile video. With Comcast , ...

Report: Comcast usage monitor coming in January
Webware.com — DSL Reports has gotten word that Comcast will soon be offering its Internet subscribers a bandwidth usage meter as early as the first week of January. With the new system users would presumably be able to see how much bandwidth they've used, akin to cellular service providers ...

Daily Tidbits: Comcast rolls out more DOCSIS 3.0, domain squatters hit the President
Webware.com — Comcast announced Thursday that it has rolled out its DOCSIS 3.0 service to four more markets: Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The company now offers wideband services in 10 cities. Comcast claims it now reaches 20 percent of its customer base with the addition of those ...

Android Emancipation and the Sweet Smell of WiFi: The Week in Tech
LinuxInsider — ... evolution service will be available late next year -- not in 2010, as originally planned. Clearwire has a head start with its WiMax service, though. It's already rolled out in Baltimore, and TechNewsWorld reviewer Walaika Haskins gave it a big thumbs up. Clearwire is actually a new entity with an old name, following a merger with Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) Latest News about Sprint Nextel . The deal included investments from a lot of other heavy tech hitters, including Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) Latest News about Comcast , Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) ...

Android Emancipation and the Sweet Smell of WiFi: The Week in Tech
E-Commerce Times — ... evolution service will be available late next year -- not in 2010, as originally planned. Clearwire has a head start with its WiMax service, though. It's already rolled out in Baltimore, and TechNewsWorld reviewer Walaika Haskins gave it a big thumbs up. Clearwire is actually a new entity with an old name, following a merger with Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) Latest News about Sprint Nextel . The deal included investments from a lot of other heavy tech hitters, including Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) Latest News about Comcast , Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) ...

Tech layoffs: The scorecard
Webware.com — ... Ticketmaster 10/21/2008 35% F***edStartups: TicketMaster.com laying off 35% Comcast 10/21/2008 300 AP: Comcast to cut up to 300 jobs in eastern di ...

News Bits: White-Label Video Firm Raises $6M
Contentinople: — ... on Comcast , asking the nation’s largest cable operator why it is telling customers that they may experience “choppy” VoIP phone calls if they choose to use products from ...

Comcast Providing Free Wi-Fi to New Jersey Commuters
eWeek - RSS Feeds — Comcast joins Cablevision in exploring Wi-Fi as a new service, which will allow both to better compete in the communications marketplace against phone providers such as Verizon. Trials of a free Wi-Fi system for customers at New Jersey Transit commuter rail stations have been underway since Friday. Comcast has rolled out an early test of a free Wi-Fi system for customers who use the New Jersey Transit system. According to news reports, some 100 rail stations and parking-lots will become wireless hot-spots, accessible to Comcast customers who sign in with their usernames and ...

thePlatform Goes After Smaller Customers
NewTeeVee — ... Comcast-ownedthePlatform announced two new products today to target low and mid-tier customers looking for a video publishing solution. thePlatform currently counts mega media companies such as BBC, CNBC and CBS College Sports as customers, but with its new mpsManage CDN and mpsManage Storage (the “mps” stands for Media Publishing System), thePlatform is looking to make its services more affordable to companies that deliver fewer than 500,000 video views per month. For its new CDN offering, thePlatform has entered into a reselling arrangement ...

Fast Implementation Is Key: Q&A With Amdocs Strategy VP Dana Porter
E-Commerce Times — ... and Asia Pacific. We also continue to see investments in the OSS space. Cable and Satellite presents an important opportunity as well, as we have large multiyear contracts in place with Rogers Communications and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) ...

Getting Lucene Down to Business With Lucid Imagination
E-Commerce Times — ... for enterprises using Lucene- and Solr-based search solutions. The Lucene Search Library was developed some 10 years ago by Doug Cutting, who released it as an open source project under the Apache license. It became one of the top five Apache projects, with more than 4,000 installations and 6,000 downloads per day, according to Eric Gries, CEO of Lucid. With its adoption by companies including Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) More about Netflix , Monster, AOL , Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) More about Comcast , Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) More about ...

Getting Lucene Down to Business With Lucid Imagination
LinuxInsider — ... for enterprises using Lucene- and Solr-based search solutions. The Lucene Search Library was developed some 10 years ago by Doug Cutting, who released it as an open source project under the Apache license. It became one of the top five Apache projects, with more than 4,000 installations and 6,000 downloads per day, according to Eric Gries, CEO of Lucid. With its adoption by companies including Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) More about Netflix , Monster, AOL , Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) More about Comcast , Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) More about ...

New Yorkers Cutting Back on Cable TV Service
Bits — ... and Comcast , often at no charge. Like the millions of Americans who are ditching their landlines and relying solely on cellphones, these cable cutters are using new technology to redefine what is necessary and what is accessory, watching television when they want as opposed to when it is broadcast, and saving a few dollars. “So many of my friends treated cable as a utility, that it wasn’t a home until it was set up,” said Nick Jackson, 24, who lives on the Lower East Side and works in publishing. “I basically chose Internet over the cable.” ...

Comcast, Sony open retail store
Crave: The gadget blog — ... Sony Electronics and Comcast announced Sunday that they have partnered to open a unique retail experience in Philadelphia. The store is named Sony ...

RIAA, YouTube, China: Plotting New and Creative Ways to Separate You From the Internet
E-Commerce Times — ... , for example -- are actually playing ball. They'll forward along two warnings, then just shut off your service. It's not clear how closely they're following the RIAA script, though. Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) ...

Canoe Prepares Interactive TV Ad Campaign
Contentinople: — ... Digital Video conference. In addition to allowing viewers to request more information from Visa, the credit card company will be able to employ targeted advertising technology to send a Gold Card version of an ad to households in 370 neighborhoods nationwide where the average income is more than $100,000. Comcast , ...

Comcast Announces 50Mbps Internet Service
I4U News — ... no additional cost in most instances. The technology allowing for these new offerings is the next-gen DOCSIS 3.0 and Comcast is moving from broadband to wideband technology. The new service will be rolled out to residential homes now with businesses getting access to the new speeds on April 28. The new super fast 50Mbps plan will offer upstream speeds of 10Mbps and will cost $139.95 per month. A more reasonably priced 22Mbps plan will offer uploads of 5Mbps for $62.95 per month. Via Comcast Posted on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun ...

Why Are the Most Creative People in Business Skipping Out on Web 2.0?
Fast Company - Technology — ... and Comcast for getting personal on Facebook and Twitter. We also chose our 100 most creative people, in part, for their willingness to embrace the unfamiliar. Why, then, are they largely skipping out on Web 2.0? ...

Lance Live: Versus Streams the Tour de France
Contentinople: — ... is offering live streaming video of the Tour de France to U.S. Web surfers for the first time, covering seven-time champion Lance Armstrong's return to the race three years after retirement. Last year, Versus offered only a few hours of live coverage during the first two stages of the 21-stage race. This year, the Comcast Corp. -owned cable channel is distributing free live streaming video of the entire race, and it is also selling a premium high-definition (HD) feed on its site. Because of restrictions in its distribution agreements with cable operators and satellite ...

HBO Joins TV Everywhere Entourage
Contentinople: — ... subscribers will soon be able to watch Entourage , Hung , and other original series and Hollywood movies online. Comcast Corp. said today that HBO and Cinemax will join the lineup of programming networks that are participating in its "On Demand Online" trial, which will launch in homes of 5,000 Comcast subscribers nationwide some time during the next several weeks. The nation's largest cable operator said it will give customers participating in the tests access to 750 hours of programming each month, including content from ...

TUAW First Look: Comcast Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — ... Cable, broadband, and phone giant Comcast has joined the ranks of companies jumping on the iPhone bandwagon with a helpful and free new app: ...

The Upside of Losing Brand Control
E-Commerce Times — ... takes a similar approach, suggesting to its customers that they, "help shape the future of Starbucks -- with [their] ideas." Customer support: While some companies are trying to decide whether or not they should create a Twitter presence, other companies, like Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) ...

TV Everywhere won’t skimp on the ads
VentureBeat — ... Online video has long enjoyed fewer ads than cable or broadcast television, but Comcast is looking to change that with its TV Everywhere initiative. ...

Ask Steve: The Consumerization Of The Enterprise
bMighty.com - Features — ... going to offer new things like distance learning and conferencing over HDTV. What do you think about getting an HDTV for the office? Steve: Bryan, you're not the only one wondering what types of cool gadgets will find their way into the workplace of the future. In prior Ask Steve articles, we've talked about the high levels of cable TV adoption in the SMB office setting, and we have no doubt HDTV and all sorts of programming are coming your way soon. The major cable operators like Comcast , ...

Can Cable Companies Become Cellular Players?
bMighty.com - Features — ... However, one area where they have not been able to match telcos is cellular services. That may change, as Cox Communications is poised to gamble $1 billion on its ability to become a trailblazer in this market. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there were clear dividing lines among data, voice, and video communications services. With the movement of all three to IP transmission has come a blurring of those traditional demarcations, such that Verizon now views Comcast as a main competitor along with its traditional foe, AT . Yet one area where the ...

10 Creative Contests Powered by Social Media
Mashable! — David Spark (@dspark) is the founder of Spark Media Solutions, specialists in building industry voice through storytelling and social media. He blogs at The Spark Minute and is the author of “14 Successful Techniques for Building Your Industry Voice with Social Media” (PDF). Traditionally, companies hold contests to get people excited about their brand and to gather names for mailing lists to push even more promotions. Now that social media is in vogue, there’s no reason to limit a content submission to just a one-way ...

Comcast - Definitely a Different Company Than They Used to Be
Stay N' Alive — I’ve been a Comcast customer most of my adult life. I have to admit unfortunately that most of that was not by choice.  I remember the days of going day after day of support calls trying to just get internet access, or to get the right speeds, or one time they claimed I had a modem when I had actually sent the modem back to them already.  They had a serious reputation with the Better Business Bureau back then. The customer was almost never right. Today they convinced me they’re a new company though. It all started about a month and a half ago when I left to Boston to spend some time ...

COUNTERPOINT: Net Neutrality Promises Level Platform For Innovation
bMighty.com - Features — ... , even when there was plenty of bandwidth available and network congestion wasn't an issue. The bottom line, it's not the amount of bandwidth at issue here. It's that Comcast and other ISPs want to be able to control what kinds of content and traffic can use that bandwidth, giving priority to some types of traffic and blocking or restricting others. Paul Korzeniowski refers to Comcast and other ISPs as "carriers," like telephony carriers. That suggests an analogy that sheds some light on the real danger here. What if a telephone carrier -- AT , for example's sake -- made ...

Web 2.0 Summit: The king for cable giant Comcast, surprisingly, is content
VentureBeat — ... Brian Roberts, chief executive of cable giant Comcast, said that his company continues to invest on faith in faster Internet access and bigger digital cables into consumers’ homes. ...

Comcast Fails to Innovate With Versus/DirectTV Debacle #vfbyu #vftcu #vsstreamit
Stay N' Alive — Versus, the Sports broadcast network owned by Comcast, Inc., has been in a turf war recently as it has pulled customers in the middle of a fight between DirectTV and its Sales team unwilling to give way until DirectTV pays.  The fight is grounded in a feud where Comcast wants DirectTV to pay extra to gain access to the network, DirectTV being unwilling to pay.  DirectTV customers (disclaimer: I am forced to be a Comcast customer right now) are forced to either switch to Comcast or forgo games like this weekend’s ranked BYU vs. TCU game shown only on the network due to pre-arranged ...

News Corp. COO Sees Hulu Charging Fees for Access
Digital Trends — ... It was not clear how a potential purchase by Comcast Corp. of a controlling stake in General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal will affect Hulu. Talks are ongoing. ...

Comcast and NBC Inching Closer to $30 Bln Deal?
Digital Trends — ... and cable operator Comcast have been dancing around each other for months, with Comcast looking to expand its already-massive business by acquiring NBC’s movie and television operations in what would surely be a massive deal. How massive? According to ...

Sprint and Other Investors Give Clearwire $1.5B in Financing
Digital Trends — ... , which owns 51 percent of Clearwire, is putting up $1.176 billion. Comcast Corp. , the country’s largest cable company, is investing $196 million, and Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks are adding $103 million and $19 million, respectively. Sprint resells Clearwire’s service, based on WiMax technology, in the few markets where it’s already available. Comcast does the same, giving it an opportunity to compete with the wireless data offerings of AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Intel Corp., which created WiMax and remains a major backer of the technology, ...

Comcast Beefs Up Local Sports Sites
BIA/Kelsey Local Media Watch — Following in the footsteps of ESPN Local and CBS Sports, Comcast will develop local sports sites on the back of its existing TV  properties. Comcast has already launched Comcast SportsNet News England, which it calls “the most comprehensive and dedicated online local sports destination.” The site features local media celebrities and has added 40 new positions – a remarkable investment. ESPN and CBS have only added a few new positions at this point. The New England site is acting as the template for similar ...

BIA/Kelsey Data & Analysis: A Weekly Recap
BIA/Kelsey Local Media Watch — ... the Android based app that essentially turns your phone into a bar code scanner. It now joins the 100,000-deep library of iPhone apps. Technically, what the app does is overlay a horizontal scanline on the camera’s viewfinder to scan an image and then scrape its product database and pull up pricing, specs and reviews. (read more…) Comcast Beefs Up Local Sports Sites Following in the footsteps of ESPN Local and CBS Sports, Comcast will develop local sports sites on the back of its existing TV  properties. ...

It is Official: Comcast Buys Majority of NBC Universal; NBCU Valued at $30 Billion
paidContent — ... host a webcast with the financial community today, December 3, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time / 7:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss this morning’s announcement with GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin and NBCU President and CEO Jeff Zucker. The webcast will be available at http://www.ge.com/investors. A replay will be available later in the day on the site. Additional media materials are available at http://www.ge.com/newnbcu, http://www.comcast.com/nbcutransaction and https://www.nbcumv.com/mv/ ...

Comcast Buys Controlling Stake in NBC
Digital Trends — ... It's a deal: cable operator Comcast is buying a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal - including its broadcast and cable properties - in a $13.75 billion deal. After months of wrangling, the deal is done: cable operator Comcast is buying a 51 percent controlling stake in ...

Comcast's New Broadcast Spectacle
E-Commerce Times — Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) just bought itself a nice little present for the holidays: NBC Universal. The cable network will have a controlling stake in NBC once the deal is flattened out, and in return, it's giving General Electric (NYSE: GE) US$6.5 billion along with $7.25 billion worth of programming. If everything passes muster with regulators, then Comcast will go from being a company that just distributes creative content to one that makes and distributes it. Clearing regulators is not necessarily going to be a cakewalk, though. Already some members of ...

Apple's iConcierge: Do You Feel the Ground Shaking?
E-Commerce Times — ... . Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the sprawling new company that would combine NBC's programming with Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSK) vast network of 24 million subscribers. Those of us who remember the Frankenstein that was ...

Comcast to Pay $16 Million for Blocking P2P Applications
Digital Trends — ... In a settlement, Comcast has agreed to pay $16 million for block peer-to-peer file sharing applications under claims of "network management." Cable operator Comcast has agreed to pay some $16 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over selectively blocking traffic from peer-to-peer networking applications in the name of “network management.” The case goes back to 2007 when the Associated Press first exposed Comcast blocking BitTorrent uploads by forging shutdown messages; the practice was later confirmed, and the Federal Communications Commissions ...

Comcast says half of US homes to have HDTVs by end of 2009
SlashGear — ... The key here is that Comcast is reminding everyone that they need HD service to go along with it. Don’t be like the woman up the street from me who bought a new HDTV and then watches it with basic cable and brags about how good the picture is. ...

Former Charter CEO And AOL Vet Neil Smit To Lead Comcast’s Cable Business
TechCrunch — ... as the new President of Comcast Cable Communications. In his new role, Smit will be responsible for all business aspects of the company’s cable operations. He will report to Comcast COO ...

Comcast Rebrands Services as Xfinity
Digital Trends — ... Comcast plans to rebrand its Internet, cable TV, and phone services under a new brand: Xfinity. Comcast has apparently decided it’s as tired of its own corporate identity as many of its customers: the company has announced that it will be rebranding its Internet, cable TV, and phone services under a new “Xfinity” label starting next week in almost a dozen major markets. Eventually, the name change will be effective nationwide.“Xfinity represents the future of our company and it’s a promise to customers that we’ll keep innovating,” wrote Comcast executive VP of operations ...

Comcast changes name to Xfinity, customers don’t care
VentureBeat — ... and a new Comcast Customer Guarantee are good steps, they are small ones. Comcast is going to need more than a new name to keep customers from grumbling and looking at more innovative and flexible products like Boxee or Apple, which tap into the internet to watch shows rather than through cable. ...

Does Comcast Charge Too Much???
The Gadgeteer — ... Comcast has once again raised our monthly HD Triple Play pricing this past month. We have had Comcast for years now and like clockwork, they raise our monthly bill annually. Once our year agreement is over, they immediately bump it up a significant amount. Until now, I would call and gripe about the increase and they would lower it to near what it had been. Never the same or less but close enough to not jump ship. This year was different (after raising our bill more than $30), when I called to (strongly) request it be reduced, both the customer service operator and her ...

The Empty Promise of Experience Without Engagement
E-Commerce Times — ... health insurance that took nine months to resolve.Another writer, Mark Hochhauser, wrote about difficulty upgrading Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) service that should have been free but wasn't. I decided to do more digging at Harvard Business Review and got more of the same. HBR's blog has numerous articles by business gurus who describe similar situations. The common denominator I see in all these sources is that companies -- wittingly or unwittingly -- leave their support people hanging with nothing between them and irate customers but ...