Comcast

Comcast on Thursday surprised with a suite of prepaid products that includes wireless, fixed broadband, Wi-Fi and streaming TV, all under the new Comcast “NOW” brand. Wireless has offered prepaid mobile plans for years. These plans have typically been targeted to lower-income people; they don’t require good credit scores (since they’re prepaid); and they can easily be switched on and off. But prepaid has not been widely offered in the fixed broadband world.

The Florida market plays larger than No. 39 in terms of news, thanks in part to being Donald Trump’s home base. West Palm saw a hearty influx of residents during the pandemic and the new arrivals just keep coming and stations keep trying to connect with the new viewers. Pictured: Felicia Rodriguez (l) and Tiffany Kenney deliver the noon and 5 p.m. news for Hearst’s WPBF.

Charter tops Comcast as No. 1 pay-TV provider by subscribers, months after hinting it may exit the business.

The home base for Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle has close to 300,000 tech workers. It boasts the highest proportion of advanced tech employees in the nation, according to a study from Burning Glass Institute. As a result, stations in DMA No. 12 work hard to reach users on the move. Seattle-Tacoma is a highly competitive TV market, with the traditional Big Four affiliates all in the hunt in key races.

For the fourth quarter, Comcast consolidated revenue increased 2.3%, to $31.3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was flat, at $8 billion. Earnings per share increased 2.4%, to $0.84.

Ted Hearn: On Friday, Comcast won a TV station carriage dispute at the FCC. In siding with Comcast, FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer likely handed victory to a second cable operator: Hawaiian Telcom. The Honolulu-based cable company last July filed a retrans complaint against Nexstar with allegations identical to those lodged by Comcast.

Backed by Simon Cowell, Kylie Minogue and Sheryl Crow, the streaming service looks to supplant smart speakers.

CBS parent Paramount Global is reportedly in merger talks with Warner Bros. Discovery – in yet another sign that legacy media institutions continue their search for sufficient scale to compete with Netflix, Apple, and Amazon in the streaming video space. If CBS is in play, that could draw others into a bidding contest, including Comcast, according to a CNBC report. If Comcast came away the winner, the Philadelphia-based media conglomerate would own the NBC and CBS networks. However, FCC rules do not permit the common ownership of two Big Four broadcast networks without a wavier — a restriction that dates to 1946.

A Citrix vulnerability was exploited, leaking names, contact information, partial social security numbers, and birth dates.

Comcast started to inform customers in some markets of an upcoming price hike. Customers will see their bills go up on their base package plus fees like broadcast TV fees and regional sports fees will also be going up. The price of TV service will go up around $6 per month. There will also be about a $4 price hike on Comcast’s broadcast TV fees. Regional sports fees will go up about $1 a month. Bundles of premium channels will see prices rise between $2 and $4 a month, depending on the package. The price of internet will also be going up on average $4 a month across all of its internet packages. And home protection customers will see their bills rise by $5 a month.

The value of Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu is expected to go well beyond that figure following an appraisal process for the popular streaming service.

Peacock now has 30 million paid subscribers, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh revealed during an investor conference hosted by UBS on Monday. The latest figure comes after the streaming service topped 28 million paid subs during the NBCUniversal parent’s third quarter report. Cavanagh reiterated previous guidance that the service is projected to hit peak losses of $2.8 billion in 2023.

Until 2024’s political windfall machine can kick in, TV groups have been leaning into revenue opportunities from sports rights and streaming prospects like FAST channels, where the breakeven mark is getting closer.

There are three cities with two ABC affiliates in the multi-hyphenated market. Nexstar’s NBC affiliate WOOD dominates thanks to a robust breaking news game plan and its investigative reporting.

One day after the Disney and Comcast co-owned streamer went on the market, Disney is buying the remaining 33% stake in Hulu for $8.61 billion. While there will be some hoops for Disney to jump through to complete the purchase, the company is predicting the deal will be completed “during the 2024 calendar year.”

“With Peacock, now we have the most live sports of any of the streaming services,” CEO Brian Roberts said on today’s earnings call. “I believe that’s a surprise to many people when they learn that. He said the streamer’s growth, and the sports component that’s helping to drive it, sets Comcast up for being “more relevant” during a transition: “how we go from analog to digital in a way that helps the leagues.”

Comcast beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and earnings despite an 8% year-over-year drop in domestic advertising. The NBCUniversal parent reported revenue of $30.1 billion in the period ending Sept. 30, up 1% from the same quarter of 2022. Earnings per share reached $1.08 on an adjusted basis, up from 96 cents a year ago. Peacock, the flagship streaming service at NBCU, picked up 4 million paid subscribers during the quarter, reaching 28 million. Its revenue shot up 64% year-over-year to reach $830 million, as losses narrowed.

Comcast and Imagicomm reached a retransmission consent agreement Tuesday, ending a month-long blackout. The deal restores WHBQ Memphis and KAYU Spokane to Xfinity cable subscribers.

The Pac-12 has had to allocate $72 million among its member universities to offset an overpayment made to it by Comcast, not $50 million, as originally reported. The revelation was divulged by George Kliavkoff, commissioner of the doomed collegiate athletic conference, amid a suit filed against his organization by two former executives.

Comcast and Disney have hired investment banks to value Hulu, the next step in what’s been a nearly five-year process to put the streaming service under one owner. Comcast, which owns one-third of Hulu, has hired Morgan Stanley, and Disney, which owns the other two-thirds, has hired JPMorgan Chase. Each bank is tasked with providing a fair value for Hulu — a condition of an agreement set up in 2019 that allows either Disney or Comcast to trigger an option forcing Disney to buy Comcast’s 33% stake.

Leaders in compliance, investigation and technology integration from Comcast and Netflix will share how they assess today’s disruptors across digital platforms and how they’re reshaping the media industry during a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat at the NAB Show New York on Oct. 26. Register here.

Former President Trump pledged to investigate Comcast, the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, if he is elected in 2024, saying it “will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday: “They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.”

Comcast and Disney have modified their Hulu agreement to enable the expected buyout of Comcast’s one-third stake in the streamer to begin on September 30 instead of next January. The news was shared at a Goldman Sachs conference appearance by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who said the initial minimum valuation of $27.5 billion for Hulu agreed to in 2019 was “just a hypothetical.” He suggested the final price tag could be much higher. Roberts said both companies “wanted to get this behind us,” so they reached an agreement last week to accelerate the timeline.

In a complicated case that has received little notice, Comcast is suing chipmaker MaxLinear for breach of contract for attempting to terminate two agreements that provide ongoing support for millions of broadband gateways and set-tops that use MaxLinear technology. The Comcast-MaxLinear legal entanglement sends ripples across a handful of top U.S. cable and satellite service operators. Comcast’s lawsuit, filed with a New York court on May 26, has linkages to a wave of separate lawsuits filed in February in a California court by a separate entity called Entropic Communications targeting Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Dish Network and DirecTV, claiming they are infringing on 20 patents.

CFO Jason Armstrong noted that the dual revenue streams at Peacock, subscription and advertising, are offsetting weakness at the linear networks. He said domestic advertising was down 5% overall for the NBCU media businesses, while advertising revenues for Peacock were up 75%.

Comcast beat analyst estimates on Thursday when it reported its second quarter results, as higher pricing helped offset a continued slowdown in its broadband business. The company also said the number of subscribers for its streaming service Peacock nearly doubled to 24 million compared to the prior-year period, with revenue up 85% to $820 million. Still, losses from the streaming platform continued to weigh on NBCUniversal’s media business.

Comcast said it signed a multi-year data license renewal with Nielsen that will expand the ratings firm’s access to return-path data about TV usage from millions of cable subscribers’ homes. Nielsen will increase its use of Comcast data in its Nielsen One measurement system and broaden its use for local-TV measurement in the 94 markets the two companies share.

Comcast has donated to opponents of LGBTQ rights despite signing a collective corporate statement against anti-LGBTQ state legislation.

The announcement of Comcast’s new virtual MVPD service, Now TV, comes at a pivotal moment for the media giant. The pay TV giant’s Xfinity cable service can’t stop shedding subscribers. It lost 2.1 million subs versus Q1 2021, 3.8 million versus Q1 2020, and it’s down 5.7 million subscribers when compared with the number held in 2018. In comparison, broadband subscribers grew by 5.6 million over the last five years, even if growth has plateaued in the last year as Comcast reaches the limits of its geographic footprint.

Comcast Corp. CEO Brian Roberts has a penchant for lining up a huge deal around every five years or so. It was 2018 the last time he made a big acquisition, and Wall Street is ready for his next dramatic move. Gaming and streaming could be in the cards.