, () based in
Philadelphia ,
Pennsylvania , is the largest
Cable Company and the largest broadband (second overall)
Internet Service Provider in the
United States . They develop
Broadband cable networks and are involved in electronic retailing and television programming content. The company employs over 70,000 people.
Comcast was founded in
1963 by
Ralph J. Roberts ,
Daniel Aaron , and
Julian A. Brodsky in
Tupelo, Mississippi . The company was incorporated in
Pennsylvania in 1969, under the name ''Comcast Corporation from American Cable Systems''.
Moving into the area of programming content, Comcast became majority owner of
Comcast-Spectacor ,
Comcast SportsNet (in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington/Baltimore metro and Sacramento, California),
E! Entertainment Television ,
Style Network ,
G4 ,
The Golf Channel and
OLN (formerly known as Outdoor Life Network) over a period of years. In 2006, Comcast will start a new sports channel in cooperation with
Major League Baseball 's
New York Mets in the greater
New York City region.
Comcast also has a variety network known as
CN8 , or the Comcast Network, available exclusively to Comcast and
Cablevision subscribers. The channel shows news, sports, and entertainment and places emphasis in
Philadelphia ,
New England , and the
Baltimore /
Washington, D.C. areas, though the channel is also available in
New York and
Pittsburgh .
The UK division was sold to
NTL in 1998. After the sale of their cellular division to
SBC Communications of San Antonio and the acquisition of Greater Philadelphia Cablevision in 1999, Comcast and
MediaOne announced a $60 billion merger which did not occur until three years later.
In 2002, Comcast paid the
University Of Maryland an undisclosed amount for
Naming Rights to the new
Basketball arena built on the College Park campus, named
Comcast Center .
On
January 3 ,
2005 , Comcast announced that it would build the
Comcast Center . The 975 ft
Skyscraper will be the tallest building in
Philadelphia when it is completed in late 2007.
Comcast bought 25% of
Group W Cable in 1986, doubling their size. Two years later, they bought a 50% share in
Storer Communications, Inc. They bought the
American Cellular Network Corporation the same year before combining with
Metrophone in 1990. Comcast became the third largest cable operator in 1994 following their purchase of
Maclean-Hunter 's American division. Comcast owned the majority of the electronic retailer
QVC from 1995 to 2004 when its share was sold to Liberty Media. Following other acquisitions,
Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast in 1997.
In 2001, Comcast announced they would acquire the assets of the largest cable television operator at the time,
AT&T Broadband (AT&T's spunoff cable TV service) for $44.5 Billion
USD . 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.
When it was first announced that AT&T Broadband and Comcast were going to merge, the chosen name for the new company was "AT&T Comcast." That decision was changed to not confuse current and future investors in the company, it was decided to just call themselves "Comcast Corporation."
On
February 11 ,
2004 , Comcast surprised the media industry by announcing an unsolicited $66 billion bid for
The Walt Disney Company , a deal that would have made Comcast the largest
Media Conglomerate in the world. After rejection by Disney and uncertain response from investors, the bid was abandoned in April. It was later discovered that the deal was mostly for Comcast to acquire one of Disney's most profitable operations,
ESPN , in an attempt to expand its sports reach. Comcast has since opted to expand OLN's sports coverage with the
Tour De France and the
NHL in the short term, while it is still planning on eventually having a national sports network to rival that of ESPN and
Rupert Murdoch 's planned national version of
FSN .
Comcast announced on
March 25 ,
2004 that their new gaming-oriented television network
G4 (operated by subsidiary G4 Media, Inc.) would acquire Vulcan Venture's technology-oriented television network
TechTV . The deal was finalized on
May 10 ,
2004 - and the two networks became
G4techTV on
May 28 ,
2004 . On
January 11 ,
2005 , Comcast announced that it would drop TechTV from the station's name and again be known as "G4".
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 create an additional outlet to carry MGM/UA's material for cable and Internet distribution.
In April 2005 Comcast and Time Warner announced plans to buy
Adelphia Cable . $17.6 billion will be paid (partly in stock) in the deal to be finalized in Q2 2006 — after the FCC completed a seven-month investigation without raising an objection. Time Warner will become the 2nd largest Cable provider in the U.S., ranking behind Comcast. As part of the same deal, Time Warner and Comcast will also trade existing subscribers to create larger clusters of customers for each company in various geographical areas.
The company has recently alienated many baseball fans in the Washington DC area by refusing to add the
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network , which airs the
Washington Nationals baseball team, to its channel lineup.
