Comcast

The rebranded NBC Sports Network is looking for sports fans. The National Hockey League lockout and a transition to new sports programming - after dropping UFC mixed-martial arts bouts and bull-riding - resulted in the Comcast Corp.-owned 24-hour sports network posting eight months of lower prime-time viewership in 2012. In December, its worst month, an average of 58,000 homes tuned in to the channel during prime time compared with 158,000 homes the previous year, according to Nielsen.

Sanity, at least as it regards the TV remote control, might be on the way. Comcast Corp. says that, as part of the X1 upgrade to its interface and channel guide, the company redesigned its TV remote and removed 24 buttons - almost half. There are now 29 buttons instead of 53. (FiOS has 47.) X1, being rolled out in individual Comcast markets, among them Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlanta, is the most sweeping change to the Comcast look and functionality since the late 1990s and a seismic shift in how the nation's largest pay-TV operator delivers entertainment.

The fastest-growing cable channel, by percentage of daily viewers, isn't TNT, USA, Bravo, Spike or ESPN. The tiny Golf Channel, formerly part of Comcast Corp.'s cable business, is claiming that title, thanks to new NBC corporate bosses who have insisted on higher-quality live and non-live programs. One of NBC's first moves: canceling Golf's Amazing Videos , which featured 3-iron shots to the groin and other silliness. The NBC regime took control of the channel within days of Comcast's acquiring NBCUniversal in early 2011.

Comcast Corp. agreed to take a $150-million stake in Arris Group Inc., the telecom equipment supplier that last month agreed to buy Horsham-based set-top box maker Motorola Home from Google Inc. As a result, according to Arris, Comcast and Google will each own about 7.85 percent of Arris shares. Arris in December said it would buy Motorola Home in a deal valued at $2.35 billion in cash and stock.    - Reid Kanaley

In the Region     PREIT sells Harrisburg center   Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust , or PREIT, completed the sale of Paxton Towne Centre in Harrisburg for $76.8 million. The shopping center sale to Kansas-based Rubenstein Real Estate Co. L.C. represents a gain of approximately $33.6 million, and net proceeds of $24.9 million after closing costs for the trust, PREIT said in a statement. Philadelphia-based PREIT has a portfolio of 47 retail centers, including the Cherry Hill and Willow Grove Park Malls.

Children have a playdate with the Sprout Network Saturday for the Super WHY Celebration at the Market & Shops at Comcast Center. Activities include storytime, and children can watch the network's favorite Super WHY episodes. There will be a meet and greet with Super WHY and Princess Presto and photo opportunities. Market merchants will have arts and crafts, kid-friendly lunch specials, an interactive gaming station, and more. Playdate is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.   KidsinCenterCity.com playdate with Sprout: The Super WHY Celebration, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday on the lower level of the Market & Shops at Comcast Center, 1701 JFK Blvd.

About 255,000 people watched Comcast Corp.'s free holiday video in the lobby of its headquarters building in Center City over the season, the company says. The video was launched in the 2008 holiday season, when 78,000 people viewed it. This year's last show was New Year's Day. Comcast has said it would like to make the show, about 15 minutes long, a holiday attraction for the region.    - Bob Fernandez

BEHIND every good TV broadcast is a dedicated technician who helps to make it happen. In the case of Comcast SportsNet, the man behind the scenes was Victor L. Hamrick, a bearded free spirit who might just as easily have been found playing a guitar, camping in the wilds or wandering the earth. He died Dec. 28 of smoke inhalation from a fire the previous day at his home in Claymont, Del. He was 57. "He was a good friend and mentor to many, had a great sense of humor and was always willing to lend a hand," said Dave Finocchiaro, senior director of engineering for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Comcast Corp. topped $100 billion in value on the stock market this month, a dazzling measure of its national economic reach. And here's another: 1.2 million people applied for jobs in 2012 at its three subsidiaries, Comcast Cable, NBCUniversal and Comcast-Spectacor: 4,650 per business day. That's not as many as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, whose namesake stores processed about five million job applications, but more...

Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company, closed above $100 billion in market capitalization Tuesday for the first time. Since buying a controlling stake in NBCUniversal on Jan. 29, 2011, Comcast has seen its stock increase in price by more than two-thirds. The company has benefited from improving prime-time ratings among 18- to 49-year-olds at the network, which climbed from last place to first this season. Comcast, which has about 22 million cable-TV subscribers, now has a higher market valuation than McDonald's Corp., Home Depot Inc., and Walt Disney Co. And it's closing in on technology heavyweights such as Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., and Qualcomm Inc. Comcast's ascension is emblematic of both a successful acquisition and an industry that has weathered difficult economic times, said Frank Louthan, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Atlanta.