Comcast Donates $1.5M In PSA Airtime For LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration

Via press release:

Organizers announced today that Comcast Corporation is the lead marketing sponsor of the National LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration. Comcast is providing $1.5 million worth of airtime to broadcast a 30-second National LGBT 50th Anniversary public service announcement (PSA). “Comcast NBCUniversal is a longstanding supporter of national and regional LGBT organizations. We are grateful to Comcast NBCUniversal for its generous support of the National LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration. Through Comcast’s support, the 50th Anniversary PSA will be the most broadcast LGBT television PSA in history,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Chair, National LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration. “The PSA commemorates the launch of the organized LGBT movement at Independence Hall, civil rights progress, and shared American values." The organized LGBT civil rights movement was launched when activists from New York, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia staged demonstrations for equality each Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969. When 40 activists picketed in front of Independence Hall in 1965, it was the largest demonstration for gay equality in world history.

Philadelphia's Annual Reminder Day was launched by pioneering activists Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings. The celebration runs from July 2nd - July 5th and most events are free. Learn more here.

Comcast Replaces G.E. Sign On 30 Rock

A friend of mine took this photo today from his office across from 30 Rock. If you look closely you'll see the nearly-installed Comcast name. Last June the New York Times reported on the sign change:

Comcast, which last year bought General Electric’s remaining 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal, applied for a “certificate of appropriateness” from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to replace G.E.’s 24-foot-high initials on 30 Rockefeller Plaza. G.E., now based in Fairfield, Conn., has long had a presence in New York. Whether another name change will be embraced by the public is arguable. It’s been a quarter-century since the two glowing red letters were installed, yet many New Yorkers still refer to it as the RCA Building, after the company that founded the NBC network. The RCA name had capped the 70-story Manhattan landmark, which at 850 feet amounts to the city’s tallest billboard (the MetLife Building is considered second), for more than 50 years. When the original letters were first illuminated in 1937, they were hailed as the loftiest neon sign on the planet.

Comcast-TWC Merger Is Dead

CNN Money reports:

Comcast is planning to walk away from its $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable after pursuing it for more than a year. The decision comes amid intense, possibly insurmountable scrutiny of the deal by government regulators. It is an extraordinary turnabout for a cable giant not accustomed to losing. The deal would have reshaped American media and given Comcast unique control over the market for broadband Internet. But on the bright side for Comcast, the deal has no "breakup fee" -- industry parlance for a financial penalty for giving up on the merger. The collapse of the merger, first reported by Bloomberg News on Thursday afternoon, came one day after a series of meetings between the cable companies and government officials. The officials shared a long list of reservations about the proposed combination of two cable and broadband companies and indicated they may take action to block it.

The formal announcement will come today.

Viral Audio: Comcastic Disconnect

1.3M listens to this maddening attempt to disconnect Comcast service.

Last week my wife called to disconnect our service with Comcast after we switched to another provider (Astound). We were transferred to cancellations (aka "customer retention"). The representative (name redacted) continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone. Overhearing the conversation, I knew this would not be very fun. What I did not know is how oppressive this conversation would be. Within just a few minutes the representative had gotten so condescending and unhelpful I felt compelled to record the speakerphone conversation on my other phone.

Comcast To Buy Time-Warner Cable

Comcast announced today that it will buy Time-Warner Cable in an $45B all-stock deal. Whoa.

The friendly takeover comes as a surprise after months of public pursuit of Time Warner Cable by smaller rival Charter Communications Inc, and immediately raised questions as to whether it would pass the scrutiny of anti-trust regulators. Comcast will pay $158.82 per share, which is roughly what Time Warner Cable demanded from Charter. The combined company would divest 3 million subscribers, about a quarter of Time Warner's 12 million customers. Together with Comcast's 22 million video subscribers, the roughly 30 million total would represent just under 30 percent of the U.S. pay television video market. The new cable giant would tower over its closest video competitor, DirecTV, which has about 20 million video customers.

Comcast bought NBC-Universal last year for $17B.

FCC Allows Basic Cable Encryption

If you've been hooking up your internet modem to rip off basic cable, those days are over.

Federal regulators are letting cable companies scramble all their TV signals, closing a loophole that lets many households watch basic cable channels for free. The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to lift a ban on encryption of basic cable signals, saying it will reduce the number of visits by cable technicians to disconnect service and reduce cable theft.

HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"It's 2012, and in the state of New York gays and lesbians have full civil rights, including marriage equality. Moreover, gays are no longer banned in the U.S. military. But they are still banned from Fifth Avenue's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in an embarrassing throwback for everyone involved.

"It's frankly appalling that NBC, and now its parent company Comcast, still sells the broadcast rights (on its local affiliate, WNBC) to the intolerant bunch that runs the parade (in 2007 that amount was $300,000) and then helps the organizers sell advertising to major companies. More than that, one of NBC's top executives, a man who aids the organizers in getting those ad dollars, was chosen as this year's Grand Marshal. [snip]

"The truth is, most LGBT activists weren't focused on the St. Patrick's Day Parade all these years, with bigger fish to fry. But many are now looking at this as unfinished business -- as I said, an embarrassment in a state where we now have marriage rights -- and they are also seeing Comcast as a company that is vulnerable. If Comcast doesn't want a battle on its hands, a battle it will ultimately lose, after much PR erosion, it will make sure that March 18, 2012 is the beginning of the end of the ban on gays in the St. Patrick's Day Parade." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.

RELATED: Irish Queers will protest tomorrow's parade from NYPD pen across from St. Patrick's Cathedral. I'll be there.

New Logo

NBC-Universal has a new really boring logo now that their merger with Comcast has been approved. And reviews are, uh, universally scathing. For you graphics geeks out there, Gawker has launched a "redo the new" logo contest.

FCC Approves Comcast-Universal Merger

CNN is reporting today that the FCC has approved the merger between cable giant Comcast and NBC-Universal. CNET explains:

The $37 billion merger between the companies has been a long time coming. The deal, which was first announced in 2009, provides Comcast with a 51 percent controlling stake in NBC Universal. General Electric will retain the remaining 49 percent. When the deal was first announced, the companies hoped to have it accepted by regulatory bodies at the end of 2010. However, over the course of the last year, the companies faced increasing concerns that their merger might unfairly impact competing content providers and harm consumers. The Department of Justice, which is also evaluating the merger with regard to antitrust rules, is also expected to vote to approve the joint venture. Both the Justice Department and that FCC stamps of approval are needed before the deal to form the joint venture can close.

The merger has been a subject of relentless lampooning on NBC's 30 Rock, where the acquiring company is called Kabletown.

Comcast Clamps Down On Netflix

Comcast has just about closed on its deal to acquire NBC-Universal, meaning that they'll soon have a much greater stake in directing their customers to their own streaming entertainment properties. So it's not too surprising that they are already charging the competition more to deliver Netflix movies to Comcast customers.

Level 3 Communications Inc., an Internet backbone company that supports Netflix Inc.'s increasingly popular movie streaming service, complained Monday that cable giant Comcast Corp. is charging it an unfair fee for the right to send data to its subscribers. Comcast replied it is being swamped by a flood of data and needs to be paid. Level 3 said it agreed to pay under protest, but that the fee violates the principles of an "open Internet." It also goes against the Federal Communications Commission's proposed rules preventing broadband Internet providers from favoring certain types of traffic, it said. "Comcast is effectively putting up a toll booth at the borders of its broadband Internet access network, enabling it to unilaterally decide how much to charge for content," said Level 3's chief legal officer, Thomas Stortz, in a statement.

Comcast has a history of "throttling" (slowing down) the signals of heavy download customers such as those accessing BitTorrent or Netflix. The FCC continues to back the Net Neutrality bill which would prevent internet providers from charging more for signals from their competitors. Netflix now accounts for about 20% of all internet downstreaming in North America.

Appeals Court Overturns Net Neutrality

In a decision that may have far-reaching impact on how you view streaming internet video, today a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the FCC's ruling that internet providers must provide equal access to all information on their networks.

The court's ruling also could pose legal problems for the FCC as it seeks to enact the expansive National Broadband Policy it unveiled last month. A spokesman for Genachowski would not say what the next steps would be for the FCC as advisors reviewed the court's 36-page decision. Among the options would be to appeal the ruling, seek direct authority from Congress to regulate broadband or have the commission attempt to classify high-speed Internet service under existing law so it would be subject to the same type of regulation as telephone service. "The FCC is firmly committed to promoting an open Internet and to policies that will bring the enormous benefits of broadband to all Americans," said FCC spokeswoman Jen Howard. "It will rest these policies -- all of which will be designed to foster innovation and investment while protecting and empowering consumers -- on a solid legal foundation."

The huge winner in the case is Comcast, which has been accused of throttling (slowing down) the internet speeds of heavy-use customers and of planning to cripple the viewing quality of streaming video sites that compete with their own. Comcast contends that the FCC has no right to tell them how to handle traffic on their own system.

Please Pay Comcast Negative Five Cents

My loyal companion Aaron notes from his self-exile in Portland that Comcast wants the immediate payment of negative five cents for his many months-ago discontinued Jersey City account. If he doesn't negative pay them at once, they'll disconnect him even more and send him to negative collections. Or something.

Comcast To Buy NBC Universal

This is major, especially for New York City. General Electric has agreed to sell a controlling interest in NBC Universal to Comcast Cable.

The agreement will create a joint venture, with Comcast owning 51 percent and G.E. owning 49 percent. Comcast will contribute to the joint venture its stable of cable channels, which includes Versus, the Golf Channel and E Entertainment, worth about $7.25 billion, and will pay G.E. about $6.5 billion in cash, for a total of $13.75 billion. For now, the network will remain NBC Universal, but ultimately Comcast could decide to change the name. Almost immediately, the transaction reshapes the nation’s entertainment industry, giving a cable provider a huge portfolio of new content, even as it raises the sector’s anxieties about the future.

The deal is valued at $30B and may take 18 months before getting the approval of the FCC. NBC's world headquarters is expected to remain in NYC for now. In 2004 Comcast failed in its bid to purchase ABC parent company Walt Disney Co.

The Really Super Bowl

A crucial final moment of last night's Super Bowl was interrupted for Comcast customers in Tucson, Arizona by a switchover to a sex scene on pay-per-wank channel Club Jenna. Apparently, it was an inside job. Heh, job.

Comcast believes the pornography that interrupted its feed of the Super Bowl Sunday night was the result of foul play, a company spokeswoman said Monday morning. “Our initial investigation suggests this was an isolated malicious act,” spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said in a statement emailed to the Star. “We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interruption and we apologize to our customers. We are conducting a thorough investigation to determine how this happened.” It is still unclear how many viewers were affected by the clip, which lasted about 30 seconds, and featured full male nudity, Maslyn said.

Comcast is working on a plan to compensate customers, but nothing has been set in stone, Maslyn said. The pornography clip was from Club Jenna, an adult cable television channel. The Arizona Daily Star newsroom was flooded with calls from irate viewers who said that the porn cut into the game with less than three minutes left to play, just after Arizona Cardinals player Larry Fitzgerald scored on a touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to put the team in the lead. Callers said that the clip showed a woman unzipping a man’s pants, followed by a graphic act between the two.

I can only imagine being at a Tuscon sports bar where five seconds after a scream of outrage, the room suddenly became rather silent....