Comcast

This article is about the media conglomerate. For the internet service provider previously branded as Comcast, see Xfinity.
Comcast Corporation
Logo used since January 11, 2024
Comcast Center, the company's headquarters in Philadelphia
Formerly	
American Cable Systems (1963–1968)
Comcast Holdings (1968–2000)
Company type	Public
Traded as	
Nasdaq: CMCSA (Class A)
Nasdaq-100 component
S&P 100 component
S&P 500 component
Industry	
Telecommunications
Media
Entertainment
Founded	June 28, 1963; 60 years ago
Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
Founder	Ralph J. Roberts
Headquarters	Comcast Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	
Brian L. Roberts (chairman & CEO)
Michael J. Cavanagh (president)
Products	
Cable television
Broadband
Internet service
Broadcasting
Revenue	 US$121.6 billion (2023)
Operating income	 US$23.31 billion (2023)
Net income	 US$15.11 billion (2023)
Total assets	 US$264.8 billion (2023)
Total equity	 US$83.23 billion (2023)
Owner	Brian L. Roberts (1% equity interest, 33% voting power)
Number of employees	186,000 (2023)
Divisions	
Xfinity
Comcast Spectacor
Subsidiaries	
NBCUniversal
Sky Group
Midco (49%)
ASN	
7922
Website	corporate.comcast.com
Footnotes / references
Comcast Corporation (simply known as Comcast, and formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings), incorporated and headquartered in Philadelphia, is an American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate. The corporation is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue (behind AT&T). It is the third-largest pay-TV company, the second-largest cable TV company by subscribers, and the largest home Internet service provider in the United States. In 2023, the company was ranked 51st in the Forbes Global 2000. Comcast is additionally the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. It provides services to U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and the District of Columbia. As the owner of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is also a high-volume producer of feature films for theatrical exhibition and television programming, and a theme park operator. It is the world's third-largest telecommunications company by revenue.
Comcast owns and operates the Xfinity residential cable communications business segment and division; Comcast Business, a commercial services provider; and Xfinity Mobile, an MVNO of Verizon. Through NBCUniversal, it also owns and operates over-the-air national broadcast network channels such as NBC, Telemundo, TeleXitos, and Cozi TV; multiple cable-only channels such as MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, Bravo, and E!; the film studio Universal Pictures; the VOD streaming service Peacock; animation studios DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and Universal Animation Studios; and Universal Destinations & Experiences. It also has significant holdings in digital distribution, such as thePlatform, which it acquired in 2006; and ad-tech company FreeWheel, which it acquired in 2014. Since October 2018, it has also been the parent company of Sky Group.
Comcast has been criticized and put under intense public scrutiny for a variety of reasons. Its customer satisfaction ratings were among the lowest in the cable industry during the years 2008–2010. It has violated net neutrality practices in the past, and, despite its commitment to a narrow definition of net neutrality, critics advocate a definition that 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 areas; in particular, the limited competition among cable providers. Given its negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that it could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. Its ownership of both content production (in NBCUniversal) and distribution (as an ISP) has raised antitrust concerns. These issues and others led to Comcast being dubbed "The Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014.
 
Evolution of Comcast NBCUniversal 
1912	Universal Pictures is founded
1926	NBC is founded
1928	Walter Lantz Productions is established
1943	MCA Inc. establishes Revue Studios (later Universal Television)
1953	NBC begins first compatible color broadcasts, preceding other networks by nine years
1956	NBC's first peacock logo debuts
1963	American Cable Systems is founded
1964	Universal Studios Hollywood opens
1967	NBC broadcasts the first Super Bowl
1968	American Cable Systems rebrands to Comcast
1972	Comcast began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
1975	Universal releases Jaws
1980	PolyGram renames Casablanca Record & Filmworks to PolyGram Pictures
MCA Videocassette‚ Inc. (later Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is established
1982	Universal releases E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1984	Walter Lantz Productions' assets are sold to Universal
Telemundo is founded
1985	Universal releases Back to the Future
1986	General Electric buys RCA for $6.4 billion, including NBC and a stake in A&E
1989	NBC relaunches Tempo Television as CNBC
1990	Universal Studios Florida opens
Law & Order premieres on NBC
Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merge to form British Sky Broadcasting
Universal Cartoon Studios (later Universal Animation Studios) is established
1993	Universal releases Jurassic Park
1994	DreamWorks Animation is founded
1996	NBC and Microsoft replace America's Talking with MSNBC
1997	Barry Diller purchases Universal's domestic television assets
1998	Seagram acquires PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Universal Television is renamed Studios USA Television
1999	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is folded into Universal Pictures
Universal Studios Florida expands to become Universal Orlando Resort
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premieres on NBC
2001	Grand opening of Universal Studios Japan
Universal releases The Fast and the Furious
Vivendi purchases Studios USA
2002	NBC acquires Telemundo and Bravo
Studios USA assets are folded into Universal
Focus Features is formed
Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband for $44.5 billion
2003	Universal becomes the first studio with five summer releases breaking the $100 million mark
2004	GE and Vivendi merge NBC and Universal into NBCUniversal
2005	The Office premieres on NBC
Comcast sets up a joint-venture with PBS, Sesame Workshop & HIT Entertainment to form PBS Kids Sprout
Comcast & Time Warner Cable jointly acquire Adelphia Cable assets for $17.6 billion
2006	USA Network begins 13-year streak as #1 cable network in total viewers
2007	Illumination is founded
2010	Universal releases Illumination's first film Despicable Me
2011	Vivendi divested in NBCU; Comcast buys 51% of NBCU from GE, turning it into a limited liability company
NBCUniversal Archives is founded
2012	Universal celebrates its 100th anniversary
NBCUniversal divests its A&E Networks minority stake
2013	Comcast buys GE's remaining 49% of NBCU
Comcast/NBCU assumes full ownership of Sprout
2014	Comcast attempts to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion
NBCUniversal reaches a new long-term deal with WWE
2016	NBCU acquires DreamWorks Animation
2017	Sprout relaunches as Universal Kids
2018	Comcast acquires Sky after a heated bidding war with 21st Century Fox
2019	NBCU acquires Cineo Lighting
2020	NBCU launches Peacock
2021	Grand opening of Universal Beijing Resort
2023	The Super Mario Bros. Movie becomes Illumination's highest-grossing film
==1926==
NBC is Founded
==1928==
Walter Lantz Productions is established
==Divisions and subsidiaries==
For a more comprehensive list, see list of assets owned by Comcast and list of libraries owned by Comcast.
Comcast Cable (Xfinity)
edit
Main article: Xfinity
Comcast Cable, which goes by the brand name Xfinity, provides cable television, broadband internet, and home telephone services. Comcast Cable also provides similar services to small to medium-sized business through its Comcast Business brand, and Fortune 1000 companies through its Comcast Enterprise brand.
===NBCUniversal===
Main article: NBCUniversal
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 SportsNet, SportsNet New York, MLB 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, 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. NBCSN folded in 2021.
Comcast has also operated 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 carried local programs and sports (including, in some cases, serving as the designated overflow channel for local regional sports networks).
===DreamWorks Animation===
On August 22, 2016, NBCUniversal bought DreamWorks Animation along with its major IP, including Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, and Madagascar and Big Idea Entertainment owning its Christian animated direct-to-video franchise VeggieTales.
===Sky Group===
Main article: Sky Group
Through Sky, Comcast offers any first-party and third-party television programming which using the satellite distribution system to its customers and subscribers across several countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. It is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018), with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019.
Until November 2018, Sky was owned by 21st Century Fox through a 39.14% controlling stake; on 9 December 2016, following a previous attempt under News Corporation that was affected by the News International phone hacking scandal, 21st Century Fox announced that it had agreed to buy the remainder of Sky, pending government approval. However, after a bidding war that included Disney (which was, in turn, acquiring most of 21st Century Fox assets), Comcast acquired the entirety of Sky in 2018 for £17.28 per-share.
In 2020, NBCUniversal and Sky Group began preparations to launch an international news channel called NBC Sky World News. The service was also planned for it to be available on Peacock in the United States. Plans for the launch – initially scheduled for summer 2020 – were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. and in August, the proposed service was scrapped, resulting in layoffs of 60 employees. NBC subsequently allowed its free streaming service NBC News Now to be seen internationally, and is available globally on YouTube and on Sky TV and Virgin Media in the UK.
===Xumo===
Main article: Xumo
Xumo is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, which Comcast acquired on February 25, 2020, for an undisclosed amount. The service operates as a business within the Comcast Cable division. Comcast planned to position the service as a complement to its premium streaming service Peacock (as well as compete with ViacomCBS's Pluto TV and Fox Corporation's Tubi), and leverage its streaming technology, as well as its distribution partnerships with smart TV manufacturers.
On October 19, 2021, Comcast announced "XClass TV", a line of smart TVs manufactured by Hisense that would be powered by the X1 software platform used by its cable services.
In April 2022, Comcast and Charter Communications announced that they would form a joint venture to form a "next-generation streaming platform", with Comcast contributing its Xfinity Flex, XClass TV, and Xumo businesses. In November 2022, Comcast and Charter announced that the joint venture would use the Xumo name, with Xumo, Xfinity Flex, and XClass TV re-branded as Xumo Play, Xumo Stream Box, and Xumo TV respectively.
===Professional sports===
Main article: Comcast Spectacor
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, as well as esports organization T1, in a joint venture with South Korea's SK Telecom. 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.
==Carbon footprint==
Comcast reported total CO2e emissions (direct + indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 2,291 Kt (-249 /-9.8% y-o-y).
Comcast's annual total CO2e emissions (direct + indirect) (in kilotonnes)
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