Comcast

NBC Universal chief Steve Burke said that with regulatory approvals behind it and the joint venture deal officially closed, his initial focus will be to help the cable networks maintain their leadership position in the industry, while improving its broadcast operations may take a little more time.

Comcast Corp. reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings as it benefited from surging ad sales and signed up customers to higher-priced packages of cable, voice and broadband service. Comcast’s upbeat results — its subscriber growth was also ahead of most expectations — came during a quarter in which the company plowed resources into finishing its deal to acquire NBC Universal.

The city of Concord, Calif., has banded together with local auto dealers to commit up to $80,000 to a multimedia ad campaign promoting buying cars at home. So who’s getting that money? Not a single TV station. Instead, Comcast Spotlight, which divides the area into 22 mini-markets with targeted advertising. With most TV stations still not sure what to do with multicast channels, it would seem to me that it’s somewhere between plausible and possible to reorient them toward serving a geographic segment of a station’s market. 

Dick Ebersol, who has run NBC Sports for nearly 22 years, is wasting little time putting his personal stamp on the sports properties of Comcast, which include the Golf Channel and Versus, and 11 regional sports networks. NBC executives with long connections to Ebersol are adding new roles at the Comcast units five days after Comcast took control of NBC Universal. Some Versus officials lost their jobs.

In a first-of-its-kind deal, Comcast and Time Warner moved forward with their vision of “TV Everywhere,” signing a new contract that covers the online streaming of channels like TNT, TBS, CNN and the Cartoon Network. The contract demonstrates that Internet rights for TV shows and channels are becoming increasingly important to distributors as they try to keep up with consumers’ changing habits.

NBC Universal’s new chief executive, Steve Burke, has resigned as Comcast Corp.’s chief operating officer but will remain an executive vice president of the cable company, according to a regulatory filing today. Burke became NBCU CEO after Comcast’s takeover of the company closed on Friday.

With the departure of Angela Bromstad, president of NBC’s primetime entertainment, it’s clear that all bets are off for the network’s first fall season under Comcast instead of General Electric.

The multi-year agreement covers Allbritton’s ABC affiliates in Washington; Harrisburg, Pa.; Lynchburg, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Little Rock, Ark., in addition to its Washington cable news channel.

Comcast’s scheme to begin streaming live video content to iPads and other tablets precipitated a flurry of legal correspondence last week, as several cable network groups made it clear that they had not signed off on any such arrangement.

Cisco and Comcast unveil new technology meant to keep subscribers in the fold.

Comcast says it plans to offer live television programming on iPads and other computer tablets later this year. For the iPad alone, Comcast says it will provide nearly 3,000 hours of TV content on demand.

Comcast-owned cable channels E! and Style released a statement on Thursday indicating that they could have their signals pulled off of Dish Network after Friday, when their current carriage deal with the satellite service expires.

Does Comcast cherish the Olympics with the same fervor as did General Electric, which has paid billions to make NBC the network of the Summer and the Winter Games for a generation?

Comcast Corp. is testing a new service that knits together television and the Internet, as the U.S. cable giant goes after rivals that threaten to undermine its business.  Under the new system, which is being tested in Augusta, Ga., content flows through a set-top box that combines features of the Web with those of a DVR.

Comcast’s Steve Burke will decide what you aee and how you’ll see it — and change the ad model in the process.

Comcast confirms that its outside mediation with Tennis Channel to try to resolve a carriage complaint has failed and the dispute will now go before an FCC administrative law judge.

It’s not clear whether any mortal can save NBC, but if anyone has a shot it might be Robert Greenblatt, who will oversee entertainment programming once NBC Universal’s merger with Comcast in completed.

Former Showtime entertainment president Bob Greenblatt today was named chairman of NBC Entertainment. His appointment suggests that cable operator Comcast Corp., which is seeking approval to buy a controlling stake in NBC, won’t be content to let NBC stay in fourth place. It also signals that Comcast will return to investing in new shows in a big way.

Talks have intensified in recent days between U.S. regulators and representatives of cable giant Comcast Corp. over its bid to take control of NBC Universal, according to people familiar with the talks. Comcast is pushing to close the deal by year-end, the sources said.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, Comcast EVP David Cohen attempted to make the case to keep the government’s role in overseeing the Internet to a minimum.

Jeff Gaspin has resigned as chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, a role he has held since July 2009. As reported late last week, the new Comcast plan for NBC Universal television left no major role for Gaspin, and the executive indicated as much in a memo to NBC employees on Monday afternoon.

Comcast Corp. said today that it will unveil an application for Apple Inc.’s iPad that allows Comcast digital subscribers to watch movies and TV shows on the tablet device, starting next month.The first version of the Xfinity TV app will be available on Apple’s iTunes Store this week.

Comcast customers can’t use a Google TV-based device to access authenticated programming on the MSO’s TV Everywhere site — but only because the Internet company’s software is not compatible with the operator’s video players, according to Comcast.

As previously reported, the peacock in chief will be Steve Burke, the Comcast COO who will become the chief executive at NBC Universal. The new structure envisions a multipronged hierarchy, with a half-dozen division heads reporting directly to Burke. The current layer of executive leadership in Jeff Zucker is essentially removed.

Comcast is relying on the ranks of NBC Universal’s management to fill top jobs as it prepares to take the wraps off a new post-merger pecking order. Comcast’s point man on the integration, COO Steve Burke, has started signing contracts and is expected to unveil a final management structure around Thanksgiving.

In a move that would serve to kneecap the ambitions of Comcast-NBC Universal, ESPN is poised to take a run at the rights for the National Hockey League. And the battle for the NHL could function as a dry run for ESPN’s pursuit of a far bigger prize: the Olympics. That said, Bristol does not have an open field spread out before it; as the incumbent cable rights holder, Comcast’s Versus has first dibs.