Nbcuniversal

Versus is history. NBCUniversal announced Monday that it is renaming Versus, Comcast's ratings-challenged 24-hour sports channel, the NBC Sports Network in January 2012.. Versus has had major operations at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia but is now under the control of NBC Sports in New York. The goal of the Versus name change - and other changes expected to be announced in the coming months - is to make the sports channel more popular with fans so that Comcast can charge higher per-subscriber fees for it. As part of the overhaul, NBC says the cable channel's broadcasting style and presentation will parallel that of NBC Sports' by emphasizing storytelling and profiles of athletes.

Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that it sold its 15.8 percent stake in A&E Television Networks L.L.C. for $3.025 billion in cash. The purchaser was A&E and enables Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp. to share 50-50 ownership in the TV programmer, whose hit shows include Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and American Pickers . Comcast acquired its stake in A&E through NBCUniversal, which it controls in a joint venture with General Electric. The $3 billion will remain with NBCUniversal, which can use it for business purposes.

The hit cable show Pawn Stars tracks the real-life dealings of a Las Vegas pawnshop and has helped transform A&E Television Networks L.L.C. into one of the nation's hottest TV programmers. Comcast Corp. was close to capitalizing on that surging popularity Monday night with a deal to sell its 15.8 percent share in A&E for slightly more than $3 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The deal could be announced as early as Tuesday. The buyers are Comcast's current partners in A&E, the Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., which will retain 50-50 ownership stakes in A&E. The price tag for Comcast's 15.8 percent share gives A&E a total value of $18 billion to $19 billion.

Comcast Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it reached an agreement to sell a 15.8 stake in A&E Television Networks L.L.C., the creator of cable-TV hits Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Storage Wars, for $3.025 million in cash. The Inquirer reported on the deal's final negotiations Tuesday. The buyers were Comcast's partners in A&E, the Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Co. The two companies now control A&E in a 50-50 venture. Comcast and A&E declined to comment.

Comcast Corp. is moving to earn money off its popular video-on-demand service by "dynamically" inserting advertisements into TV reruns. NBCUniversal, which is controlled by Comcast, is the first programmer to agree to a deal. Comcast executive Marcien Jenckes said Tuesday that negotiations with other TV networks were "very far along" because the new ad-insertion technology would allow them to earn new revenue on existing TV shows. Until now, networks could change advertisements on VOD shows, but only monthly.

The Universal theme park in Florida with its popular Harry Potter attraction and the high-grossing box-office blockbuster Fast and Furious 5 helped boost Comcast Corp.'s pro forma second-quarter revenue by 9.4 percent. The Philadelphia-based company lost fewer cable-TV subscribers during this year's second quarter than the last year's - 238,000 compared with 265,000 - and added more high-speed Internet customers, which has been a focus of growth for Comcast. The company added 144,000 Internet customers compared with 118,000 added in the year-ago quarter.

Answering Wall Street's call for higher returns to shareholders after stabilizing its cable-TV subscriber losses, Comcast Corp. said this morning it would boost its annual dividend 44 percent to 65 cents a share and repurchase $6.5 billion in company shares, with $3 billion of it spent this year. The nation's largest cable provider disclosed its shareholder plans in its earnings report, which showed it lost only 17,000 cable-TV subscribers in the fourth quarter. That's compared against a loss of 135,000 subscribers in the same period one year ago. Comcast also substantially improved its TV subscriber losses on a year-over-year basis-losing 460,000 subscribers in 2011 compared with 757,000 in 2010.

Penned by the ghost writer behind popular autobiographies of Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and "Mayflower Madam" Sydney Biddle Barrows, An Incredible Dream, a self-published authorized corporate history, has been released by Comcast Corp. The 424-page, 27-chapter book is being distributed to more than 100,000 Comcast and NBCUniversal employees and will become an orientation must-read for new hires. The book cover bears an image of Ralph Roberts, the lead company cofounder, now 92 years old, with arms open, seemingly embracing a crowd.

So much for Netflix and other over-the-top Internet services quickly wiping out the cable-TV business. Comcast Corp. said Wednesday that it had virtually arrested the drain of cable-TV subscribers in the fourth quarter, and analysts speculated that the nation's largest cable company could soon add TV customers after five years of steep and damaging losses that threatened its legacy business. A quarterly loss of 17,000 cable-TV subscribers marked Comcast's best numbers since the first quarter of 2007, when it added 83,000 subscribers.

Joseph Donnelly, of Lansdale, the chief financial officer for NBC Broadcasting, and a tireless advocate for Philadelphia region Catholic schools, died Friday, March 9, at Saint Luke's Hospital in New York City. Mr. Donnelly, 52, had suffered a heart attack Feb. 28 in New York and died from complications, his family said. Mr. Donnelly, who had previously served as the chief financial officer of Comcast Corp.'s programming division, was instrumental in that company's growth into a cable powerhouse and also played a key role in the company's successful merger with NBCUniversal in 2011, said Brian Roberts, the chairman of Comcast Corp.

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. could have run NBCUniversal in a joint venture with General Electric until 2018. But acting now to buy the remaining 49 percent of the news and entertainment conglomerate, investment analysts say, means that Comcast does not risk having to pay more for it later. Because Comcast has directly operated the company for two years, the deal signals confidence that the cable giant can restore rundown NBCUniversal to health, the analysts say. On Wednesday, Jessica Reif Cohen of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Matthew Harrigan of Wunderlich Securities called the deal a "steal.

Comcast Corp., flush with billions of dollars from sales of assets and bonds, rapidly accelerated its acquisition of NBCUniversal on Tuesday, saying it would pay $16.7 billion for the 49 percent of the entertainment, news and film conglomerate that it doesn't already own. The Philadelphia cable giant expects the deal to close within the next six weeks. The seller is General Electric Co., which sold Comcast 51 percent of NBCUniversal in 2011. Comcast and GE were expected to operate NBCUniversal as a joint venture until at least mid-2014, and Comcast could have continued the joint venture through 2018.

NBCUniversal head Steve Burke announced on Monday that the entertainment company hired the former CEO of Univision, Joe Uva, to head its Hispanic franchise, including Telemundo. Also, Bonnie Hammer has been promoted to head all cable channels and Lauren Zalaznick will direct innovation, monetization and emerging technology at NBCUniversal. All three will report to Burke. "More than ever, we need to simplify our organization and take advantage of the breadth of our assets," Burke said in an memo.

With celebrities tweeting and viewers sharing Facebook "likes" for TV shows, Comcast Corp. and NBCUniversal will announce today that they will invest in the British social-TV start-up zeebox and help launch its app in the United States. It's a huge boost for zeebox, as it enters the U.S. market on the nation's largest cable system. Zeebox aggregates TV show information, Twitter feeds, and other data for smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Using the zeebox app, TV viewers can toggle their attention between a live show and its real-time social-media buzz on a "second screen.

For NBCUniversal, the Olympic Games brought the thrill of breaking even - and the shutting up of the naysayers. As the dust of the track settles, and the stats and data shake out, NBC's coverage of the world's biggest sporting event, on network TV, cable, and the Web, looks good enough to earn a medal. Despite programming glitches, confusion over venues and schedules, and #nbcfail (see below), London 2012 is a win for Comcast Corp., the Philadelphia-based majority owner of NBCUniversal.

The hit cable show Pawn Stars tracks the real-life dealings of a Las Vegas pawnshop and has helped transform A&E Television Networks L.L.C. into one of the nation's hottest TV programmers. Comcast Corp. was close to capitalizing on that surging popularity Monday night with a deal to sell its 15.8 percent share in A&E for slightly more than $3 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The deal could be announced as early as Tuesday. The buyers are Comcast's current partners in A&E, the Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., which will retain 50-50 ownership stakes in A&E. The price tag for Comcast's 15.8 percent share gives A&E a total value of $18 billion to $19 billion.

Comcast Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it reached an agreement to sell a 15.8 stake in A&E Television Networks L.L.C., the creator of cable-TV hits Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Storage Wars, for $3.025 million in cash. The Inquirer reported on the deal's final negotiations Tuesday. The buyers were Comcast's partners in A&E, the Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Co. The two companies now control A&E in a 50-50 venture. Comcast and A&E declined to comment.

Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that it sold its 15.8 percent stake in A&E Television Networks L.L.C. for $3.025 billion in cash. The purchaser was A&E and enables Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp. to share 50-50 ownership in the TV programmer, whose hit shows include Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and American Pickers . Comcast acquired its stake in A&E through NBCUniversal, which it controls in a joint venture with General Electric. The $3 billion will remain with NBCUniversal, which can use it for business purposes.