Fiktiv USA - Comcast

Comcast Corporation (formerly registered as Comcast Holdings) is an American telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue (behind AT&T), the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. Comcast provides services to U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and in the District of Columbia. As the parent company of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is a producer of feature films and television programs intended for theatrical exhibition and over-the-air and cable television broadcast, respectively.

Comcast owns and operates the Xfinity residential cable communications subsidiary, Comcast Business, a commercial services provider, Xfinity Mobile, an MVNO of Verizon, over-the-air national broadcast network channels (NBC, Telemundo, TeleXitos, and Cozi TV), multiple cable-only channels (including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Syfy, NBCSN, Oxygen, Bravo, and E!, among others), the film studio Universal Pictures, the VOD streaming service Peacock, animation studios (DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, Universal Animation Studios) and Universal Parks & Resorts. It also has significant holdings in digital distribution, such as thePlatform, which it acquired in 2006.

Comcast has been criticized for multiple reasons; its customer satisfaction often ranks among the lowest in the cable industry. In addition, Comcast has violated net neutrality practices in the past, and, despite Comcast's commitment to a narrow definition of net neutrality, critics advocate a definition which precludes any distinction between Comcast's private network services and the rest of the Internet. Critics also point out a lack of competition in the vast majority of Comcast's service area; there is limited competition among cable providers. Furthermore, given Comcast's negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. Its ownership of both content production (in NBCUniversal) and content distribution (as an ISP) has raised antitrust concerns. These issues, in addition to others, led to Comcast being dubbed "The Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014.

Comcast is described as a family business. Brian L. Roberts, chairman, president, and CEO of Comcast, is the son of founder Ralph J. Roberts. Roberts owns or controls about 1% of all Comcast shares but all of the Class B supervoting shares, which gives him an "undilutable 33% voting power over the company". Legal expert Susan P. Crawford has said this gives him "effective control over [Comcast's] every step". In 2010, he was one of the highest paid executives in the United States, with total compensation of about $31 million.

Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, Manchester, New Hampshire and New York City. On January 3, 2005, Comcast announced that it would become the anchor tenant in the new Comcast Center in downtown Philadelphia. The 975 ft (297 m) skyscraper is the second tallest building in Pennsylvania. Comcast has since finished construction on a second 1,121 ft (342 m) skyscraper, the tallest building in Pennsylvania, directly adjacent to the original Comcast headquarters in the fall of 2018, known as the Comcast Technology Center. As of 2019 the company has a total of 184,000 employees.

The book value of the company nearly doubled from $8.19 a share in 1999 to $15 a share in 2009. Revenues grew sixfold from 1999's $6 billion to almost $36 billion in 2009. Net profit margin rose from 4.2% in 1999 to 8.4% in 2009, with operating margins improving 31% and return on equity doubling to 6.7% in the same time span. Between 1999 and 2009, return on capital nearly tripled to 7%. Comcast reported first quarter 2012 profit increases of 30% due to increase in high-speed internet customers. In February 2014, Comcast generated 1.1 billion in revenue during the first quarter due to the Sochi Olympics. As of 2020, Comcast is ranked 28th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

For the fiscal year 2017, Comcast reported earnings of US$22.7 billion, with an annual revenue of US$84.5 billion, an increase of 5.5% over the previous fiscal cycle. Comcast's shares traded at over $37 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$163.7 billion in October 2018.

Comcast Cable is the cable television division of Comcast Corporation, providing cable television, broadband internet, and landline telephone under the Xfinity brand. Comcast Cable also provides connections to small to medium-sized business through its Comcast Business brand, and Fortune 1000 companies through its Comcast Enterprise brand.

Comcast delivers third-party television programming content to its own customers, and also produces its own first-party content both for subscribers and customers of other competing television services. Fully or partially owned Comcast programming includes Comcast Newsmakers, Comcast Network, Comcast SportsNet, SportsNet New York, MLB Network, Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast, NBC Sports Network, The Golf Channel, Syfy, and USA Network. On May 19, 2009, Disney and ESPN announced an agreement to allow Comcast Corporation to carry the channels ESPNU and ESPN3.

Comcast's content networks and assets also include E!, Oxygen, Golf Channel, NBCSN, Universal Kids, Bravo, and the regional NBC Sports Networks. When Comcast took majority ownership in NBCUniversal, a significant number of cable networks were added to this list. Comcast's NHL deal obligated them to create a U.S. version of NHL Network, launched in October 2007.

Comcast also operates local channels in some markets, such as Comcast Television in the Detroit region, Comcast Network in the Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic regions (formerly CN8), and Comcast Entertainment Television in Denver and parts of Utah. They primarily carry local programs and sports (including, in some cases, serving as the designated overflow channel for local regional sports networks).

On August 22, 2016, NBCUniversal bought DreamWorks Animation, along with its major IPs including Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, and Madagascar and Big Idea Entertainment which owns the popular Christian cartoon Veggietales.

In 1996, Comcast bought a controlling stake in Spectacor from the company's founder, Ed Snider. Comcast Spectacor holdings now include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team and their home arena in Philadelphia. Over a number of years, Comcast became majority owner of Comcast SportsNet, as well as Golf Channel and NBCSN (formerly the Outdoor Life Network, then Versus). In 2002, Comcast paid the University of Maryland $25 million for naming rights to the new basketball arena built on the College Park campus, the Xfinity Center. Before it was renamed for Comcast's cable subsidiary, Xfinity Center was called Comcast Center from its opening in 2002 through July 2014. Comcast became the sponsor of NASCAR's second-tier series renaming it the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015.

Comcast founded its first venture capital fund in January 1999, as Comcast Interactive Capital. Around 2011, following the 2009 NBC Universal acquisition, Comcast Interactive Capital was merged with The Peacock Equity Fund, the venture capital subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The combined company, Comcast Ventures, is led by Amy Banse as Head of Funds and backs various companies such as FanDuel and Vox Media, for example.

List of assets owned by Comcast:
Comcast Corporation
- Comcast Holdings Corporation (or Comcast Holdings)
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (Xfinity)
- Comcast Business
- Comcast Interactive Media
- StreamSage
- Comcast Cable Holdings, LLC (formerly AT&T Broadband Corporation)
- Comcast MO Group, LLC (formerly Media One or Bell West)
- Comcast MO of Delaware, LLC
- CN900 (Michigan)
- CN81 (Indiana)
- Comcast Wholesale
- Xfinity Mobile
- Effectv
- Xfinity Streampix
- Xumo
Comcast Spectacor operating sports and entertainment venues
- Spectra
- ComcastTIX
- Maine Mariners (ECHL)
- Paciolan
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Philadelphia Wings
- Philadelphia Fusion (CS Philadelphia OW Team, LLC)
- Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)
T1 Entertainment & Sports (34% with SK Telecom and Highland Capital)
- T1
In Demand Networks (33.3% with Cox Communications and Charter Communications)
Comcast Spotlight (Advertising)
Comcast Technology Solutions
Comcast Ventures (formerly Comcast Interactive Capital)
- Headend in the Sky (HITS)
FreeWheel
Watchwith
iMedia Brands Inc. (12.5%)
- ShopHQ
Hitz
Leisure Arts
Midco (49%)
Music Choice LLC (Minority stake with Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Microsoft, Arris International and Sony Corporation of America)
- Music Choice