Comcast

A three-judge panel in Washington on Monday heard Comcast Corp.'s appeal of the Federal Communications Commission order to distribute the Tennis Channel to about 20 million homes, or the same number of cable homes that it distributes the Comcast-owned Golf and NBC Sports Network channels. Tennis, which initially filed the action at the FCC in 2010, claims that Comcast is violating the 1992 Cable Act by favoring its own sports channels over Tennis and that its actions harm the 24-hour sports network.

After a slow start, Comcast Corp. says it has enrolled 100,000 poor families nationwide into its discounted Internet program. There are about 1,450 families in Philadelphia participating, triple the number from late last year. Internet Essentials - offering Internet service at a 79 percent discount, or $9.95 a month, to families with school-age children - remains a work in progress, Comcast says. The company is holding news conferences around the nation, and one event is scheduled Friday morning at Constitution High School in Philadelphia.

ONCE AGAIN, Comcast is trying to milk us for more money. This time, it's $8 for the NFL Network that other outlets offer free. This is the same company with a commercial about the big bad expensive phone company. I'm shocked at Brian Roberts' audacity. How much more money does he honestly think he can wring out of us? I'm ready to throw a parade the day I can get Verizon FIOS in my neighborhood. Keith E. Callan, Philadelphia

It's final. Comcast Corp. closed Tuesday on its $16.7-billion purchase of the 49 percent of NBCUniversal it didn't already own. The cable giant announced the deal in February and it did not need federal government approvals, which had been obtained when Comcast purchased the first 51 percent of NBCUniversal in early 2011. "We are excited the transaction has closed and look forward to taking full advantage of the opportunities for growth and innovation at our combined company," Comcast said.

Comcast Corp. yesterday reported record revenues and operating cash flow for the year ended Dec. 31, but earnings for the Bala Cynwyd company dropped sharply. Comparisons were complicated, however, by accounting practices related to a large acquisition during the year. Net income for the year was offset almost entirely by Comcast's equity in the losses of its newly acquired affiliates. Comcast and four other cable companies purchased Group W Cable Inc. from Westinghouse in June and are in the process of dividing up Group W's cable systems.

Comcast Corp. plans to enter the children's programming business and hopes to televise three hours of educational shows per week in place of regular cable programming. The Philadelphia company, one of the nation's biggest cable operators, said it intended to show children's programs produced or bought by its C3 subsidiary within 18 months. Comcast said it was seeking changes in contracts with cable networks such as USA Networks and MTV so it can substitute its own shows at a time of day when children are likely to be watching.

Comcast Corp. says an experimental method for managing the Internet could slow speeds for all heavy online users for 10 to 20 minutes. The Philadelphia company is testing the new method in five markets around the nation in response to a Federal Communications Commission order, formally released yesterday. Philadelphia is not one of the markets. The order says Comcast has to stop targeting its customers who use BitTorrent Inc. software to view pirated movies online and other Internet video.

After three years in temporary digs, Comcast Corp. has found a permanent home for its national headquarters just three blocks west, the Binswanger Advisory Group said yesterday. Binswanger, which arranged the new lease, said Comcast will move from its interim headquarters in 1234 Market St. to the Centre Square building at 15th and Market streets by the middle of next year. The search for a permanent headquarters "befitting the image of a major corporation" has taken more than two years, said David Binswanger, the company's president.

Comcast Corp. said yesterday that its digital voice service would help the Philadelphia company reach 53 million subscription units by the end of 2009. The projection represents a near doubling of total subscriptions to Comcast's various services - cable TV, high-speed Internet and voice - from the 27 million the company had in 2003. Comcast has 24 million customers, but totals subscriptions to its three product offerings. The company credits the projected growth to its "triple-play" marketing, which bundles the three services for customers at an initial $99 per month.

Comcast Corp. says it has formed four diversity councils representing the interests of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and women to advise senior executives. The Philadelphia-based cable company agreed to the councils as part of its deal to acquire control of NBC Universal Inc. The councils will advise the company in five areas: corporate governance, employment, procurement, programming and philanthropy.    - Bob Fernandez

About a dozen tea party activists from the Philadelphia area gathered outside the Kimmel Center on Wednesday - site of Comcast Corp.'s annual shareholders' meeting - to protest the company's ownership of the liberal-leaning MSNBC 24-hour cable news channel. Inside the meeting, shareholders peppered Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts about the company's decision to ban local gun-shop advertisements. There were also complaints about the Rev. Al Sharpton, host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC.

Just as voters find it hard to muster enthusiasm for local elections in the year after a presidential election, shareholder activists seem to be subdued in the current annual shareholder meeting season. The meeting that tends to attract the most attention locally is Comcast Corp. The Center City-based cable TV and Internet service provider will hold its meeting in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts at 9 a.m. Wednesday. But this year's proxy statement contains just two shareholder-sponsored proposals, compared with four in 2012.

Comcast Corp. reported weaker quarterly results for NBC broadcast TV and deeper cable-TV subscriber losses in the first quarter, but higher revenues and profits because of TV rate hikes and growth in other parts of the business. Theme parks, big-screen movies, and business services did well. Revenue at the cable-TV and media conglomerate rose 3 percent to $15.3 billion when compared with the same period of the prior year. Comcast's profits jumped to $1.44 billion from $1.2 billion for the quarter, or 54 cents a share.

Cathy Avgiris, daughter of a Greek carpenter and a seamstress from Brooklyn, keeps climbing the corporate ladder at Comcast Corp. The 53-year-old executive, who helped launch the company's Internet and phone business, has been promoted to chief financial officer of its cable division, a business that serves 22 million cable-TV subscribers and has a projected $40 billion in annual sales this year. The division is a source of much of Comcast's profits. Avgiris already is the top woman executive in the division, the nation's largest cable-TV provider.

STAMFORD, Conn. - Officials call Connecticut the sports-media headquarters of the world, with the 19-building complex that is ESPN in Bristol and offices for World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and the Yankees' YES Network here. Now they can add NBC Sports. Lured by generous tax credits and modern TV studios, the Comcast Corp.-owned NBC Sports is bailing on 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan - the most prestigious address in the TV business - after rehabbing and reconfiguring a Clairol hair-products factory for $100 million.

On a path pocked with potholes and strewn with hacked and chainsawed brush, Bill and Stephanie Mink scanned their list of names. Bill's grandparents and great-grandparents had already been crossed off, their graves found in a well-kept section of Mount Moriah Cemetery. The rest of the Minks, more than a dozen of them, could be anywhere in the sprawling, 200-acre cemetery just off Cobbs Creek Parkway, in Southwest Philadelphia, their gravestones choked by weeds like so many plots in the 158-year-old burial ground.

Comcast Corp. CEO Brian Roberts was compensated $29.1 million in salary, stock options, bonus, pension contributions, and perks such as use of a corporate jet in 2012. That's more than 700 times what the typical U.S. worker earned in 2012, and Roberts, who was third on the list of top-paid Philadelphia-area CEOs last year, could top the list this year. It's a lot of moola. In an era of runaway Hollywood-mogul compensation, though, Roberts' pay package won't even make it to the top five in the entertainment industry, where Comcast has become a powerful economic force.

Comcast Corp.'s Philadelphia cable-TV franchise agreement expires in late 2015. City officials say they will seek public comments over the next year as they negotiate a renewal with the nation's largest cable operator. Currently, Comcast offers TV, Internet, and phone services in the city. "A lot has happened in the last 15 years, and there is a lot to talk about," said Steven Robertson, deputy chief innovation officer for the city. "It's the beginning of the discussion. " The negotiations will be handled through the Office of Innovation and Technology.

More than a decade ago, the telecommunications company RCN Corp. viewed itself as a potential competitor to Comcast Corp. One national magazine wrote about it as "The Little Phone Company That Can?" Then, according to a long-running antitrust lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court, Comcast thwarted RCN's expansion into cable-TV business in Philadelphia by lobbying against RCN with government officials, offering customers discounts in areas where RCN would expand, and restricting RCN's access to contractors who would build out its network.

Here's an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of April 2, 2013: Craig LaBan : Good afternoon, hungry friends. It's been two weeks since we last got together. Please dish, so we can catch up. We do have a Crumb Tracker Quiz, with a chic apron for the first person who names all three places I ate these dishes: (1) crawfish mac-n-cheese; (2) shrimp "cupcakes"; (3) Puerto Rican-style fried chuleta pork chops. Ready, set - start crumbing! Reader: Do you know where the former Vernick pastry chef who made their delicious blueberry pie went?