Comcast
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Swimming With The Megalodons
When the media world’s most predatory shark realizes he’s about to be someone else’s lunch, you have to wonder whether we all might need a bigger boat. Only four years ago, Rupert Murdoch was circling the waters of Time Warner in the hope of hooking those prized assets and feeding them into his own 21st-century entertainment factory. Today, he is the one hocking most of the family jewels to the Walt Disney Company in a $71.3 billion deal that leaves his clan with a stripped-down entity focused on live news and sports, as well as a passive stake in a […]
by Colin Brown on Sep 17, 2018 -
Will Comcast Get Disney?
Earlier this month Comcast made an unsolicited bid to buy the Walt Disney Company for $66 billion. Other than acknowledging the offer, neither the Disney board nor management has formally responded to the offer. Over the last decade, Comcast has moved aggressively through a series of mergers and acquisition to become the nation’s largest cable television operator and, potentially, media combine. The Disney bid comes about two years after federal regulators approved Comcast’s $30 billion acquisition of NBC Universal. In 2002, Comcast acquired AT&T’s cable and broadband holdings for $29 billion. In 2004, it made a $48 billion bid for […]
by David Rosen on Nov 16, 2012 -
Another Web is Possible
Most mobile and wireline users rely on a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) to access the web. Such ISPs include big dogs like AT&T and Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast, as well as small fries like Earthlink and Juno. However, there is a second class of ISP that is little discussed: nonprofit ISP. Nonprofit ISPs involve two different types of providers – municipal or community networks and nonprofit corporations. In 2001, there were only 16 government-run networks in nine states. Today, there are an estimated 150 communities around the country with their own publicly-owned broadband networks. In the face of […]
by David Rosen on Sep 28, 2012 -
SNAG FILMS EXPANDS TO FICTION, HIRES BINGHAM RAY
At All Things Digital’s BoomTown column, Kara Swisher is reporting that the ad-supported streaming service (and owner of IndieWire) Snag Films has hired distribution veteran and October Films founder Bingham Ray to “spearhead its distribution of fictional narrative and foreign-produced independent films.” These announcements accompany news of $10 million in new financing from Comcast’s investment arm and New Enterprise Associates. From the piece: Currently, SnagFilms has 2,000 films in its online library, although [Snag Films founder Ted] Leonsis said the aim is to use the new funds to get 10,000 films on the service as soon as possible. “We’re trying […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2011 -
COMCAST, CABLE CORDCUTTING AND THE ECONOMY
Comcast beat estimates but surprised analysts with an almost 300,000 subscriber loss, reports Tim Arango in the New York Times. From the article: [Bernstein analyst Craig] Moffett said the image of the cord-cutter has been a “cutting edge technologist” who prefers to bypass cable to watch programming on their computers and on an every-proliferating array of devices, such as tablets. “The reality is it’s someone whose 40 years old and poor and settling for a dog’s breakfast of Netflix and short-form video.” He added, “the image that people are cutting the cord because they like what’s on the Internet better […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 27, 2010
