Project Infinity/HD Press Release

COMCAST CEO BRIAN L. ROBERTS ANNOUNCES PROJECT INFINITY: STRATEGY TO DELIVER EXPONENTIALLY MORE CONTENT CHOICE ON TV

Comcast To Give Consumers More than 1,000 HD Choices in 2008
Announces Roadmap to Add 6,000 Movies with 3,000 in HD

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 8, 2008 –Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communications, today announced three major content initiatives at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts unveiled the Company’s plan to give consumers more than 1,000 HD choices in 2008, its strategy to begin adding additional HD movies, and announced Project Infinity – its vision to give consumers the ability to watch any movie, television show, user generated content or other video that a producer wants to make available On Demand.

“Project Infinity plans to give consumers the best and most content they will find On Demand anywhere – more HD, more sports, more movies, kids’ programs and network TV,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation. “Project Infinity builds on our commitment to bring more content to people across all platforms at home and on the go, and we’ll work with our partners, programmers and video producers to deliver on this vision.”

More Choice – Project Infinity

Project Infinity envisions ever-increasing customer choice that continues the evolution of time-shifted viewing that began with the huge success of Comcast On Demand. Comcast’s vision is to give customers exponentially more content choices – all available to consumers at the click of the remote without having to buy any additional equipment.

Project Infinity is a logical extension of Comcast’s television and online content strategy, which has fundamentally changed the way people watch video. As Comcast’s On Demand library has expanded to offer more than 10,000 selections each month, viewership has grown dramatically, surpassing six billion views since 2003. Comcast customers now are selecting On Demand 100 times per second, with 275 million views monthly.

Comcast will support its plan for Project Infinity using its existing fiber network and national IP backbone. The Company plans to create a system of library servers that will efficiently serve VOD content to consumers from several key locations across the country. This system would enable Comcast to offer exponentially more VOD content.

More HD

Comcast plans to expand its current HD lineup beyond the hundreds of HD choices available today, which is already more than any other provider offers. By the end of the year, Comcast will make available more than 1,000 HD movies and TV shows every month, as well as the most popular television networks in HD as they debut. HD content is the fastest-growing category in Comcast’s On Demand library.

More Movies

With 1,300 movie titles available each month, Comcast Digital Cable customers already have access to more movies On Demand than they can find anywhere else. Beginning next year, Comcast plans to offer more than 6,000 movies a month, and more than 3,000 of them will be available in HD. Today, Comcast Digital Cable customers can choose from new releases as well as hundreds of free movies from Sony, MGM, FEARNet and Encore as well as movies from premium networks like Starz, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel – all available at their fingertips with no additional equipment.

More Content Online

Today the company also launched Fancast.com, the first online destination that will enable customers to find, manage and watch television and movie content wherever it is available – on Fancast, on television, online, on DVDs or in movie theaters. Fancast will provide consumers with an easy way to manage their entertainment experience as the number of viewing choices that are available across platforms continues to grow rapidly. In addition, Comcast currently makes more than 90,000 videos available at any time on Comcast.net.

For a webcast of Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts’ CES keynote address and for additional press information on Comcast announcements at CES, please visit www.comcast.com/ces.

http://www.comcast.com/ces/infinity_hd.aspx?section=hd

http://www.comcast.com/ces/content/images/ProjectInfinityHD/Charts/MoreMoreMorePREVIEW.jpg

Comcast looks to rev up Internet speeds, add HD content

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- Cable companies aren't known as nimble innovators, but Comcast Corp. is out to change that perception this year with ultra-high-speed Internet service, more high-definition content and gadgets that link video, phone and broadband services.

"We're about innovation and having the best network," Chief Executive Brian Roberts told The Associated Press in a preview of his speech at the Consumer Electronics show on Tuesday.

Roberts is expected to demonstrate a technology that delivers up to 160 megabits of data per second. The technology, DOCSIS 3.0, will start rolling out this year.

"If it's as successful as we hope, in 2009 and beyond we will have it available in millions of homes," he said.

Robert hopes the speed-up will boost growth of Comcast's broadband service, which has been slowing.

Cable systems largely enable download speeds up to 10 Mbps -- compared with up to 50 Mbps from Verizon's fiber-optic service FiOS.

"Cable looks like it will be able to keep up with the Joneses, thank you very much," Craig Moffett, senior analyst at Sanford Bernstein in New York, said of the new technology.

Roberts said Comcast plans to offer more than 1,000 high-definition videos this year, including up to 300 movies on demand that may be free or included in a subscription or a pay-per-view service.

That's a salvo aimed at DirecTV Group Inc. in their race to amass high-definition content. Philadelphia-based Comcast and El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV settled a lawsuit last month over which has better quality HD.

Roberts said Comcast will be creating "superservers" to store the extra video-on-demand content and supplement those in the neighborhood that move shows and movies to customers' cable boxes.

When a customer wants to watch a show that's not stored in the regional server, the computer will dial into the national server to access the content and bring it to the home, Roberts said.

These national servers will enable Comcast to offer 6,000 movies on demand -- 3,000 of them in high-definition -- without requiring customers to get a new cable box.

Moreover, Roberts said the cable system is a "secure, licensed world" that should reassure movie studios that their content won't be easily pilfered.

To supplement its horde of movies and TV shows, Comcast plans today to officially launch its Fancast Web site ( www.fancast.com), which has full TV episodes for old and new shows as well as some movies.

The site also incorporates Fandango, the movie-ticket purchase portal, which Comcast bought last year.

Within months, Comcast subscribers will be able to check TV listings on the Fancast site and have the digital video recorder attached to their TV record a show.

Roberts also said that Comcast's TiVo service has been launched in New England, and he expects wider deployment soon after. TiVo will be available as an add-on service for a fee Comcast will share with TiVo Inc.

In voice, Comcast is rolling out a caller ID service that pops up on TVs and computers of customers who buy its video, Internet and phone package.

And with VTech, Comcast is developing a cordless phone with a mini-screen on which users can access e-mail.

The phone, now in testing, also will offer visual voicemail like Apple Inc.'s iPhone does, in which users can see a list of messages and choose which to hear first. And it will offer weather forecasts, sports data and a phone directory.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/UPDATE/801080425

http://www.comcast.com/ces/content/images/Wideband/DOCSISSpeedsPREVIEW.jpg

Yeah, it doesn't matter how fast they make the service. If they continue to ban people for using the service or limit P2P use, their service is essentially useless.

Is Comcast concentrating on HD VOD only because it lacks the capability to deliver a linear HD channel lineup on par with DirecTV's current tally of 85-plus and Dish Networks' 70-plus? Not according to Derek Harrar, Comcast senior vice president and general manager of video services: "We have clear consumer evidence that people love on-demand."

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6517916.html

Comcast is a joke. I like their internet but dumping thier Cable TV in favor of D* was the best decision I have ever made.

The claim they have more HD than satellite completely contradicts what Shaggy and Scooby Doo told us.

Who will America believe?

;)

Comcast is claiming "hundreds of HD choices today," but I get only about a dozen HD national channels with them. If they are concentrating on VOD and pay-per-view, that is not any good.

Comcast will likely lose my business when D* gets their HTPC tuner released, unless Comcast does a couple of things: provide all the national HD nets, and lower their prices.

OnDemand, OnDemand, OnDemand. 99% of what was said alludes to OnDemand, not new HD channels.

"By the end of the year, Comcast will make available...the most popular television networks in HD as they debut."

"as they debut" - what a joke - we still don't even have Food-HD nor HGTV-HD.

...when D* gets their HTPC tuner released...

Info, please!

Comcast will not reduce their prices, you are naive to believe otherwise. The problem they have regarding HD channels is they simply do not have the capacity right now to offer many more channels. While they have this crappy analog cable on their systems, it will stifle progress until they upgrade cable plants to have more bandwidth which is very costly and takes a lot of time.

Info, please!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972157

hmmm docsis 3.0? probably get there faster then waiting for FIOS

Comcast will not reduce their prices, you are naive to believe otherwise. The problem they have regarding HD channels is they simply do not have the capacity right now to offer many more channels. While they have this crappy analog cable on their systems, it will stifle progress until they upgrade cable plants to have more bandwidth which is very costly and takes a lot of time.

You are correct in everything you say, except of course that I don't actually believe Comcast will lower their prices--only that they should and that they will likely lose my business because of their prices. As for their obvious bandwidth limitations, what is the solution that will allow them to add all these touted HD options, along with 160Mbps data?

at least Comcast have announced something.

Try being a TWC customer. Best news we've had is that they'll be upgrading customers to SDV sometime next year. And with it comes the abomination of an IPG they created in-house to save money.

Oh, and they just put the rates up. There's a huge gulf between the second and first major cablecos and not just between cable and satellite.

You are correct in everything you say, except of course that I don't actually believe Comcast will lower their prices--only that they should and that they will likely lose my business because of their prices. As for their obvious bandwidth limitations, what is the solution that will allow them to add all these touted HD options, along with 160Mbps data?

DOCSIS 3.0 is one part of it. They are also upgrading many of their cable systems. Mine for instance is nearly doubling it's capacity and has been in the process for a while. But for them On Demand is a temporary bridge until they can offer the linear channels to their customers. Because you can offer 1,000 HD On Demand programs and maybe 100 of them will be used at one time. If you only need 10% of the actual infrastructure to make it work, you can offer a lot more. It's like an all you can eat buffet. There's tons of choices, but you can only enjoy one at a time.

I don't mind them increasing on demand so long as they get their act together with full time channels when bandwidth issues are sorted out. I'd much rather have them than on demand. the fact that they are still pounding this "hd choices" instead of channels thing doesn't inspire me.

I like OnDemand, but it will never replace the DVR unless they improve the commands. I'm not going to watch something that I can FF or REV only in 1x. Sometimes I start a movie and can't finish watching it and if "rental" period has expired you have to start it from beginning and FF at slowest possible speed.

I dumped Comcast HSI because they threatened I used too much bandwidth and if it happens again they would suspend my account for a year. They said I used 50GB in a month. Unless my 2 year old is downloading Disney movies without me knowing I doubt that is true. I checked my usage after their "warning" for 1 week and in 1week I only used 1Gb.

If they are going to increase their speeds then they can't threat customers like criminals. Heck. If they will have imposed limits then they should provide a way to check your usage at any given time.

OnDemand, OnDemand, OnDemand. 99% of what was said alludes to OnDemand, not new HD channels.

"By the end of the year, Comcast will make available...the most popular television networks in HD as they debut."

"as they debut" - what a joke - we still don't even have Food-HD nor HGTV-HD.


Well maybe comcast doesn't consider HGTV and Food Network amongst "the most popular television networks". Of course in my house they certainly are. We received these channels in our market late Nov 07. Although I think other markets had them long before that.

vj9999, I find it offensive that Comcast would tell you that you were wrong to use "too much bandwidth." You are paying them for the pipeline (maybe 6 Mbps); you should be able to have full use of that.

And their slides (posted earlier in this thread) tout downloading an HD movie in 4 minutes (vice 2 hours with 6 Mbps) -- what kind of benefit would that be if you'd get suspended for using it?

If Comcast wishes to impose d/l limits, they must post those along with their advertised speeds. Such as: "New DOCSIS 3.0 Ultra-High-Speed Internet! More than 25X faster than your current cable modem! Up to 50 GB/month in downloads!" Then, customers can decide if 50 GB is worth $XX.xx or not.

Well maybe comcast doesn't consider HGTV and Food Network amongst "the most popular television networks". Rather, Comcast already provides HGTV and Food Network. Individual towns may not carry them, but Comcast does provide them.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972157

Did you mean HDPC?

Well maybe comcast doesn't consider HGTV and Food Network amongst "the most popular television networks". Of course in my house they certainly are. We received these channels in our market late Nov 07. Although I think other markets had them long before that.

Indeed they did; back on June 10 as a matter of fact.:mad:

We just got a huge addition to our HD lineup last month from Comcast, from 7 non-premium channels so something like 30. We didn't even get Fox HD before, let alone Food/HGTV/USA/TBS/etc.

All I really still want in HD is AMC, BBC, and GSN.

What's Comcrap going to do when Directv ramps up their HD VOD offerings. Last time I checked D* only had 3 HD VOD programs but that number will go way up in the future.

I know there is another thread about all of Comcast's 2008 plans but this topic deserves its own thread.

From CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/08/ces.comcast.ap/index.html

"Roberts is expected to demonstrate a technology that delivers up to 160 megabits of data per second: It will allow him to download a high-definition copy of "Batman Begins" in four minutes. The technology, DOCSIS 3.0, will start rolling out this year."

Perhaps Joe-six-pack would be impressed with the above statement but I was appalled by it. The math just doesn't work well. 4 minutes X 60 seconds X 160 mbps = 38.4 gigabits. That sounds like a lot of data but Batman begins is a 141 minute movie. That equals 4.5 megabits encoding rate.

How in the hell can they call that high-def? I don't care what codec they use. 4.5 megabits is not high-def. Heck, you could fit that "high-def" version on one single-layer DVD!

Comcast unintentionally exposed the bit rate they consider to be "High-definition" in their press release. I'm not impressed.

-Mr. Wigggles

(Ps. I wasn't impressed with how crappy the playoffs looked last weekend on Comcast either.)

vj9999, I find it offensive that Comcast would tell you that you were wrong to use "too much bandwidth." You are paying them for the pipeline (maybe 6 Mbps); you should be able to have full use of that.

It is 100% truth. I was banned for one year for using too much bandwidth. Google this issue as it has happened to hundreds of people. Switched to AT&T DSL and haven't looked back.

BASIC CABLE NETWORK RANKINGS FOR 2007: 01/01/2007-12/30/2007

SOURCE: NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH (NHI)

TOP 30 NETWORKS RANKED ON Persons 2+
PRIMETIME (M-SU 8PM-11PM)*

1 USA
2 TNT
3 ESPN
4 TBSC
5 LIF
6 FOXNC
7 TOON
8 AEN
9 NAN (Nick at Nite)
10 HALL
11 DISC
12 FX
13 SPIKE
14 TRU
15 FAM
16 SCIFI
17 HIST
18 HGTV
19 AMC
20 CMDY
21 MTV
22 TLC
23 TVL
24 VH1
25 FOOD
26 CNN
27 BET
28 ESPN2
29 BRVO
30 APL

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/original/Cable%20Time%20Period%20Rank%20-%20PRIME%20-%20Year%202007%20(Live).pdf

About 18 of the "most popular" networks have HD versions with HD content. Comcast has 13 of them so they're missing a few.

Maybe it's letterboxed 720p, which only uses about 1280x535 pixels.

OnDemand, OnDemand, OnDemand. 99% of what was said alludes to OnDemand, not new HD channels.

"By the end of the year, Comcast will make available...the most popular television networks in HD as they debut."

"as they debut" - what a joke - we still don't even have Food-HD nor HGTV-HD.

Unfortunately I'm hearing that more HD channels won't arrive until SDV is implemented in the summer. It could potentially be even longer than that. NJ seems to have a major bandwidth problem.

So we're probably in for a long wait.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972867

Comcast to offer more than 3K HD movies a month in 2009

January 08, 2008: 01:06 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Corp. said Tuesday it will begin expanding its movies on demand lineup from the start of 2009 to provide customers access to more than 6,000 movies a month, more than 3,000 of them in high-definition.

The company said it will offer more than 1,000 HD movies a month by the end of 2008 and more than 1,000 HD choices overall this year.

Comcast also announced it will unveil a new plan, dubbed Project Infinity, that will allow customers to watch any content they wish on demand. The company said it will support Project Infinity using its existing fiber network and national IP backbone. Comcast plans to create a system of library servers that will enable the company to offer exponentially more VOD content.

Shares of the Philadelphia-based cable and programming entertainment company were trading up 30 cents at $17.27.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-22111301.htm

Did you mean HDPC?

No; HTPC stands for Home Theater PC. There's a great section here on AVS dedicated to those most handy devices.

It is 100% truth. I was banned for one year for using too much bandwidth. Google this issue as it has happened to hundreds of people. Switched to AT&T DSL and haven't looked back.

I understand and don't doubt it; I merely find it very offensive. If Comcast gave me that kind of nonsense, I'd be interested in doing more than simply firing them. Did they show you in writing the user agreement that limits the quantity of use? I've not seen such a thing.

In my short HD experience with Comcast, they're really good at marketing, poor customer service and constant price "adjustments". I'd love to get a big selection HD movies, but in my area, we only have about 20 and NO free ones. Last time i called, i was told they hadn't upgraded my area yet.

And, who the heck is Marcus Carr? Does he work for Comcast or just their marketing agency?

Here in Denver the morning news (9news) reported this as Comcast offering 1000 HD Channels....

My wife saw it while I was getting coffee. I said no way! She said rewind it and see. Sure enough the broadcast AND graphic said 1000 HD Channels. I replied that is great except none of the actual content will be in HD. Now I read this is VOD? I'm contemplating going OTA for my HD and dropping cable tv altogether now.

Marcus is just posting the press releases for us to discuss (and disect, and criticize ;) ).

But even if there was an affiliation between a poster and the subject matter, we welcome all information posted.

Once DOCSIS 3.0 is rolled out in a given area, do customers on all speed tiers need to upgrade their modems?

And, who the heck is Marcus Carr? Does he work for Comcast or just their marketing agency?

I also work for D*, E*, Verizon, AT&T, and several other cable companies.:rolleyes:

this is really simple for me

no OAR - no sale
no lossless audio - no sale

As far as I know television cannot deliver lossless audio so that rules me out.

I also work for D*, E*, Verizon, AT&T, and several other cable companies.:rolleyes:

my apologies with how that came out. sometimes i type faster than i think.

Did they show you in writing the user agreement that limits the quantity of use? I've not seen such a thing.

Nope. It's not any written policy or anything. They secretly hire some third-party company to handle the warning and ultimately suspension of service. The best part is they charge $61/month for service you can't use the full potential of.