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Calling Comcast an ISP is a bit strange. They are still primarily a cable service. They are also quite experienced with running tv studios, they own E, Style,

Calling Comcast an ISP is a bit strange. They are still primarily a cable service. They are also quite experienced with running tv studios, they own E, Style, Golf, G4 and quite a few more. That being said I've worked for 2 companies that Comcast bought, the first was TechTV which got absorbed into G4 and tanked. I'm not looking for the takeover of NBC to go much smoother. Comcast has installed a lot of their broadcast heads over their NBC counterparts. I understand they want to drive the direction, but putting people in charge of severely underperforming networks over people in only marginally underperforming networks makes no sense to me. This merger is going to be ugly and have a lot of nasty fallout.

InclinedPlane 16y ago
Nah, it's fine. The faster the traditional networks tank the faster people realize that the new hotness is elsewhere, and the faster resources and talent flows to that elsewhere.
pasbesoin 16y ago
At home, Comcast is my one choice for "high speed" Internet. That -- for the most part -- works ok, although in the past some months it's started to drop for one or several hours at a time, which has me worried. (I've heard and read that others are not so lucky.) The pricing they offer means it's about the same to get Internet alone or to purchased it bundled with basic cable, so I have basic cable from them as well. I turn it on, once in a while, and the quality I've observed has decreased markedly in the last couple of years. It seems that very frequently, one or another channel has a major technical glitch. These will -- when I check -- persist for hours or even days. In addition, with the transition to digital, sometimes programs flip mid-scene between different display modes and ratios. A lot of digital artifacting from overly constrained bandwidth, particularly on the "less desirable", i.e. Hispanic, channels -- also at times PBS (gee, I wonder why). Keep in mind that, being basic cable, the final leg is still analog and so is not the problem. What I gather from the programming is that all the channels are more or less under combined control, anyway. The same 5 movies are on different channels, in slightly different timeframes/rotations. A lot else seems the same: "That 70's Show" and "Men" seem to be on every channel. Even though I'm "paying" for it, Comcast displays no interest in even technically maintaining, much less programming, the basic channels. This has left me with no confidence in their being a corporate "good citizen". If you aren't the fattest part of their revenue stream, they couldn't care less.

InclinedPlane 16y ago

Nah, it's fine. The faster the traditional networks tank the faster people realize that the new hotness is elsewhere, and the faster resources and talent flows to that elsewhere.

pasbesoin 16y ago

At home, Comcast is my one choice for "high speed" Internet. That -- for the most part -- works ok, although in the past some months it's started to drop for one or several hours at a time, which has me worried. (I've heard and read that others are not so lucky.) The pricing they offer means it's about the same to get Internet alone or to purchased it bundled with basic cable, so I have basic cable from them as well. I turn it on, once in a while, and the quality I've observed has decreased markedly in the last couple of years. It seems that very frequently, one or another channel has a major technical glitch. These will -- when I check -- persist for hours or even days. In addition, with the transition to digital, sometimes programs flip mid-scene between different display modes and ratios. A lot of digital artifacting from overly constrained bandwidth, particularly on the "less desirable", i.e. Hispanic, channels -- also at times PBS (gee, I wonder why). Keep in mind that, being basic cable, the final leg is still analog and so is not the problem. What I gather from the programming is that all the channels are more or less under combined control, anyway. The same 5 movies are on different channels, in slightly different timeframes/rotations. A lot else seems the same: "That 70's Show" and "Men" seem to be on every channel. Even though I'm "paying" for it, Comcast displays no interest in even technically maintaining, much less programming, the basic channels. This has left me with no confidence in their being a corporate "good citizen". If you aren't the fattest part of their revenue stream, they couldn't care less.