Comcast

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Comcast Corporation
Formerly
  • American Cable Systems (1963–1969)
  • Comcast Holdings (1969–2001)
Public
Traded as
Industry
FoundedJune 28, 1963; 61 years ago (1963-06-28)
Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
FounderRalph J. Roberts
Headquarters,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
RevenueIncrease US$94.507 billion (2018)
Increase US$19.009 billion (2018)
Increase US$11.731 billion (2018)
Total assetsIncrease US$251.68 billion (2018)
Total equityIncrease US$71.613 billion (2018)
OwnerRoberts family (1% equity interest, 33% voting power)
Number of employees
184,000 (December 2018)
Divisions

Comcast Corporation (formerly registered as Comcast Holdings) is an American telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue and the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. Comcast services U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and in the District of Columbia. As the owner of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is a producer of feature films and television programs intended for theatrical exhibition and over-the-air and cable television broadcast, respectively.

Comcast owns and operates the Xfinity residential cable communications subsidiary, Comcast Business, a commercial services provider, Xfinity Mobile, an MVNO of Verizon, over-the-air national broadcast network channels (NBC, Telemundo, TeleXitos and Cozi TV), multiple cable-only channels (including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Syfy, NBCSN, and E!, among others), the film studio Universal Pictures, and Universal Parks & Resorts. It also has significant holdings in digital distribution, such as thePlatform, which it acquired in 2006.

Comcast has been criticized for multiple reasons; its customer satisfaction often ranks among the lowest in the cable industry. In addition, Comcast has violated net neutrality practices in the past, and, despite Comcast's commitment to a narrow definition of net neutrality, critics advocate a definition which 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 area; there is limited competition among cable providers. Furthermore, given Comcast's negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. Its ownership of both content production (in NBCUniversal) and content distribution (as an ISP) has raised antitrust concerns. These issues, in addition to others, led to Comcast being dubbed "The Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014.