WEBVTT - The Comcast Story: Part Two 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.160 Get in with technology with tech Stuff from Stuff Tachom. 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland here, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.000 the moved host, and I am bringing to you part 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.840 two of the Tromcast story. In part one, you heard 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.480 about the founding of the company and the fledgling and 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.680 cable industry. Why the cable industry was even a thing 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.160 in the first place. It was originally just so people 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.040 who could not receive over the air broadcast could still 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.640 get some programming, especially as television became a more and 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.280 more important means of communication in the dawn of the 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.360 digital age, and actually the broadcast age, I should say 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:48.160 precedes the digital age. But we talked about the founding 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.880 and the rise of of Brian Roberts, the son of 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.280 founder Ralph J. Roberts. I thought i'd pick up specifically 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.800 right there. This is going back to nine teen ninety 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.720 that's when Ralph J. Roberts named his son, Brian Roberts, 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.000 the president of Comcast. Not at the time, Brian was 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.920 just thirty years old, and the announcement caused a bit 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.759 of a stir because here's this young guy taking over 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.679 the role of president of a major cable company. That 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:23.560 had been making some pretty pretty hefty moves in the industry. Now, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.480 Ralph J. Roberts said he would stay on as the 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.000 chairman of the company. And while thirty is pretty darn 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.520 young to be the president of a rapidly growing company, 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.600 Brian had actually been working for Comcast in one way 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.400 or another since before he was ten years old. According 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.920 to some reports, he was seven when he started working, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.840 which mean they had twenty three years of experience working 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.840 for Comcast. I do question exactly what he was doing 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.120 at seven years old, but that's the story, at least 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.800 in certain Comcast literature. But that would mean that he 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.320 was actually one of the more senior employees of Comcast. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.280 He had worked there longer than a lot of other 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.280 people there, so at least from the seniority standpoint, it 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.640 wasn't that unusual, although some might argue that it was 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.200 a little weird for a father to name his son 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.920 the president of the company he founded. At any rate, 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:16.560 Brian Roberts definitely dedicated himself to the success of the company, 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:21.000 there was no question about that. Around that time, operations 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.760 were continuing to grow in Britain. If you listen to 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.320 the last episode, you know that one of the things 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.840 Comcast looked at in the eighties was to expand in 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.680 in the UK because it was starting to get really 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.560 difficult to grow in the United States. They were starting 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:40.360 to reach full penetration of cable service and the few 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.440 cable companies that were left were really expensive and limited 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.760 in their range, so they looked elsewhere. Well By had 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.520 one million customers in the United Kingdom, and Comcast made 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.320 additional purchases in the cell phone space as well here 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.440 in the United States in order to grow its business 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.760 as m CIL was not growing as quickly as the 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.160 company had hoped. If you remember, am Cell was the 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.280 cable the cell phone service company they purchased in an 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.080 effort to get into a new field. But am Cell 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.359 kind of suffering the same issues that the cable service 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.600 industry was suffering, and that people weren't necessarily flocking to 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.880 m Cell to become customers. So instead of trying to 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:29.919 push that business out harder, Comcast looked at acquiring additional 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:34.400 cell phone service companies to bolster its customer base. That way, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.040 so if growth isn't there, you should just go out 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:44.960 and buy it, I guess. In the headquarters for a Comcast, 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:50.520 which were located at one Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, caught fire. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.680 The building was totally destroyed. The fire took nineteen hours 0:03:55.800 --> 0:04:01.080 to extinguish, so Comcast is actually the core headquarters was 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.120 shut down for about eight days until they set up 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.720 a temporary headquarters four blocks away from their original burnt 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:12.280 out home. Also in Comcast held a bit of a 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:17.040 marketing stunt. They completed a five way international phone call 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.160 to demonstrate you don't need a telephone company to make 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.520 a call, even a complicated one, and that really prompted 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.240 telephone companies to argue that they should be allowed to 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.400 enter the cable television business, since the cable television business 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.279 was now dominating in the phone business, at least in 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:41.960 cell phone coverage. Also in Comcast bought interest in Store Communications, 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.200 the company that had previously sold as Florida Operations to 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.839 several years earlier. You remember I mentioned that in the 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:54.680 previous episode. And Comcast became the third largest cable operator 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.960 in the United States after it acquired the US cable 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:02.360 operations of McLean Hunter. The company also launched a new 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.480 public company in the UK called Comcast UK Cable Partners, 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.400 and Comcast made golfers extremely happy when they partnered with 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.200 a few other companies and became a founding investor of 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.400 the Golf Channel, which, as I recall, was one of 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:22.200 the earliest channels to offer high definition programming. That was 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.679 a little bit later, but thank goodness, you could watch 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:32.479 golf and high definition. I find golf very relaxing to watch. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.039 I that's the best thing I can say about it. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.560 I guess I certainly takes skill to play, and I 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.560 lack it at any rate. That year, Comcast also entered 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.840 a partnership with Sprint UH Telecommunications Incorporated and Cox Communications, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.280 and together they formed the Sprint Telecommunications Venture, which was 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.280 later called Sprint Spectrum LP and later still was called 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.400 Sprint PCs. So once again Comcast can and used to 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:06.040 try and diversify, expanding into cellular service and wireless service. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.839 Comcast itself would continue to grow mainly through acquisitions. As 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.280 we've seen in our previous episode, the company would buy 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.479 up other cable operators and mostly expand that way, eliminating 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.040 competition along the way, which certainly helped and in Comcast 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.360 had more than four point three million customers, mainly through 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.800 this tactic of buying up existing companies and converting them 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:35.279 into Comcast, so customers found themselves becoming Comcast customers. Just 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:42.440 through these acquisitions, Comcast bought a sixty three percent share 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:47.160 of the Philadelphia Flyers from a company called Spectacre, which 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:52.120 was created by Flyers founder Ed Snyder. Comcast had created 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.200 a new company with this partnership, and it's now called 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.479 Comcast Spectacre. The company not only owns and manages the 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.039 Flyers and also the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, and 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.680 the company has divisions overseeing the venue, ticketing and concessions. 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.560 This is not the only sporting franchise that Comcast owns. 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.040 There are others in the Philadelphia area as well, which 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.000 makes sense. I mean, that's again where Comcast headquarters are. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.560 That's where a couple of the co founders of Comcast 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.440 grew up, and uh, they are still very much heavily 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:31.679 involved in the sports area of Philadelphia. Comcast also announced 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.360 it would create a new channel in Philadelphia just called 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.560 Comcast sports Net, specifically a regional sports channel for the 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.880 Philadelphia area. And finally, in nine Comcast got into the 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:50.280 broadband business. The company launched a service called Comcast at Home, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.680 with the at being the at symbol, and they launched 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.160 it in Baltimore, Maryland and Sarasota, Florida, kind of as 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.760 a sort of prototype. They're there ted sting grounds. They 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.160 wanted to see if this business would have any legs, 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.240 and the trial run offered a cable modem service to customers, 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.720 and as it turned out, and ended up being a 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.280 fruitful business which Comcast quickly began to adopt and roll 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:20.840 out in other areas. In nineteen seven, another major company 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:25.160 took interest in Comcast, and that major company is Microsoft. 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:30.880 So Bill Gates's company invested one billion dollars in Comcast 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.280 in nine The purpose of that investment was to help 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.800 Comcast deploy high speed data and video services through its infrastructure. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.319 So Comcast was starting to look at ways of creating 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:47.760 a fiber optic coaxial sort of system, replacing lots of 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.800 copper lines with fiber optic lines to deliver much faster service. 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.000 And it was through this investment that Comcast was able 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.920 to afford that infrastructure without affecting its operating funds too much. 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.200 And in this way, this was a step to move 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.560 towards the world we live in now, in which people 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.880 in the United States can get high speed Internet streaming 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.079 to different devices in the home and not just PCs. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.800 In fact, in the press release that Microsoft VP of 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.679 Corporate Development, Greg Maffei had taken part in, MAFE had said, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:25.599 like Comcast, Microsoft has always believed that increasing network bandwidth 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.000 is a key to the eventual convergence of the Internet, 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:34.400 the PC, and the television. So even back then, there 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.640 was a look at we're using these pipes in the 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.560 parlance of the web. We're using these pipes to deliver 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.480 TV and to deliver broadband. Broadband, by the way, is 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.000 being delivered over one of those six mega hurts channels 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.840 that I talked about in the first episode that cable 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.360 can you cable can hold hundreds of mega hurts, So 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.400 broadband internet connection is just six mega hurts of a cable. 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:03.959 That's plenty of base available for that. So Microsoft was saying, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:08.439 we've got this delivery system that's doing both television and Internet. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.599 It's only a matter of time before we start to 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:16.640 see these different technologies start to converge into a single technology. 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.800 And as it turns out, that's very much true. It 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.480 took a little bit longer than what they were expecting, 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.840 I imagine, but that's what we're seeing now. A lot 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.160 of people either have smart televisions or they have their 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.839 TVs hooked up to one or more set top devices 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.920 that allows them to view Internet content on their televisions. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.679 And there are some who argue that eventually that will 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.560 be the primary and perhaps only way that will get 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.240 content on our TVs. That we won't receive programming from 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:52.120 a cable service directly. It will be through an Internet service. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.120 And that's quite possible. Well, more and more people are 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.880 opting for that, as we'll say later in the episode, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.880 and any rate, by this time, cable television wasn't even 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.720 the largest division within Comcast. Cable TV was taking a 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.960 back seat. Uh So, Comcast had interest in content and 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.920 cellular services, and there were growing concerns that the company 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.600 in charge of delivering content was also in the business 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.400 of creating content, and those concerns would grow over the 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.400 following years. This is where you started seeing people make 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:31.480 noise about net neutrality. How can a delivery system remain 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:37.320 unbiased when it also was creating content being delivered on 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:42.040 that system. In other words, if you are a company 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.360 that creates content and you're also a company that allows 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.280 content to be delivered to customers. How can anyone be 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.880 certain that you don't give your own content preferential treatment. 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.080 Maybe you slow down other types of content across your network, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.400 maybe you don't allow it to even broadcast on your network. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.120 Maybe you tell your customers, hey, the stuff we have 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.080 is the best stuff out there. You don't need anything else. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.920 These were big concerns, and while Comcast was largely playing nice, uh, 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.080 it was a it was a worry that perhaps in 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.760 the future that would not be the case. And so 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.560 we really started getting into the conversations about net neutrality 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.160 around this time. I mean they had been around before that, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.439 but this is when it really started to take more 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.800 of a spotlight, and that would increase over the years. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.040 Skipping ahead to two thousand one, Comcast bought the Outdoor 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.520 Life Network and expanded its investment in the Golf Channel, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.160 which ended up giving Comcast controlling interest in that network, 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.880 and it also announced it would purchase a T and 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:51.480 T broadband for a cool seventy two billion dollars. At 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.520 that time, a T and T broadband was the largest 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.040 cable TV provider in the United States, so Comcast both 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:03.160 eliminate some competition and grows its own cable television services 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:09.240 by buying another service, uh, which no big surprise again 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.280 if you're looking back along the history of Comcast, that 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.960 was the tactic from day one. Really. In two thousand two, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:23.880 Comcast unveiled plans for HD television and video on demand services. Again, 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.320 the Golf Channel was one of those early HD channels. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.160 As I recall, this was one of those things where 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:36.120 the United States was definitely trailing behind Japan by several years. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.880 But HD television's back in the early two thousand's were 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.400 really expensive. I don't know if you guys remember, because 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:42.800 these days, you know, you can go out and buy 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:47.319 an HD television for a relatively low cost, still several 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.880 hundred dollars. But you know, when you start looking at 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:54.440 things like four K televisions, they are relatively inexpensive. HD ones, 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.360 that is, HD are relatively inexpensive compared to four K. 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:03.440 But just like four K. Now, back then, there were 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.920 very few channels that actually offered up h D content. 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.880 So you can get an HD television, but there wasn't 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.040 much to watch on it at the time. The Golf 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.720 Channel was one of those things, so if you really 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.280 like golf, you could get a really good, look at it. Uh. Also, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.400 Brian Roberts assumed the role of CEO of the company, 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.120 becoming president and CEO in two thousand two. Not long 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.200 after that, he would actually also assume the role of chairman, 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.880 so became President, CEO and chairman of Comcast. Again, keep 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.320 in mind this is the son of the founder, Ralph J. Roberts. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:43.440 In two thousand four, Comcast made an unsuccessful bid for 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:48.480 a hostile takeover for the Walt Disney Company. Now that 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.960 might sound pretty weird, because today Disney is bigger than ever. 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.680 Disney owns so much. Disney bought Marvel, Disney bought the 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.120 Star Wars franchise. The movie is are doing really well. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.000 But in the early two thousand's Disney was in turmoil. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:10.480 There were leadership issues. People were disenchanted with Michael Eisner 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.760 as the chairman of Walt Disney. The company itself was 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.520 not doing as well in the market as it had 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.320 been previously. Some people were beginning to feel that Disney 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.480 itself had the company had lost its way, and people 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.600 like Roy Disney, who had been on the board of directors, 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:32.640 seemed to be in dismay at the state of the company. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.680 So the bid was somewhere in the fifty four billion 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.520 dollar range, and it was based on stock price. It 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.320 was going to be a stock exchange deal if this 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.200 were to actually go through. But it was a hostile 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.560 takeover and does that mean well. Originally, Comcast was sending 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.360 messages to Disney chairman Michael Eisner, but Eisner refused to 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.360 discuss a deal. Then Comcast went over Eisner's head and 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.080 sent a letter of intent to directly to the board 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.200 of directors, saying, we want to purchase your company. Here 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.000 are the here's the deal where we want to do 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.400 it in stock. The stock is currently valued at fifty 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:15.560 four billion dollars. Now Disney itself was being valued somewhere 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.640 in the sixty six billion dollar range, but again it 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.800 was kind of struggling at the time. So comcast hope 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.520 was that the board of directors would come and talk 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.200 to Comcast and they would be able to work this 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.960 out and that uh, you know, maybe the word board 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.360 of directors thought this would be the best approach in 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:38.160 order to make money for shareholders, for Disney shareholders, and 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.800 the attempt was huge news because the number of properties 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.520 that would have been involved were significant. Disney at that 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.240 Time was already the parent company of ESPN and ABC, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.200 so those would fall under the role of Comcast. Then 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.640 Comcast the delivery system would also be in control of 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.800 ABC and ESPN, and people were worried that this would 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.600 mean Comcast would be able to leverage that over other providers. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.800 So let's say Time Warner Cable and it comes up 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.840 and Comcast says, hey, I own ESPN, And if you 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.320 want ESPN to run on your cable networks to your 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.760 cable customers, you're gonna have to pay X amount to 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.080 have access to that content. Uh. You know, it would 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.800 have been a very powerful leveraging tool, but there was 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.000 no need to worry about that. The deal actually fell 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:32.320 through when shareholders for both Disney and Comcast were resisting 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:37.119 the move for different reasons. Comcasts stock price fell eleven 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.680 percent over the time from when they announced the bid 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.920 to the time when they decided to walk away. Now, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.359 because the stock price fell eleven percent, and because their 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:55.159 bid was about an exchange of stock, the value of 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:59.640 the stock they were bidding fell, I mean, it wasn't 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.760 as valuable as it used to be. This would be 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:03.920 as if I went up to you and said, hey, 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.159 I want to buy your shoes for ten bucks, and 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.520 you say, well, I'll think about it, and the next 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.320 day I come up to you with a ten dollar bill. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.400 But in that time, the value of ten dollars has decreased, 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.800 meaning the buying power of that ten dollars is less. 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.879 It's similar, except now we're talking about actual stock, not 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.439 the value of currency. But the point being that what 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:27.920 used to be worth fifty four billion dollars was now 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.840 worth even less than that, so that made it a 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.920 much less attractive deal for the Disney board of directors. Meanwhile, 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.359 the board of the Board of Directors are also getting 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.119 the message from their shareholders, we don't want you to 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.200 sell this company to Comcast. And since both parties were 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.840 receiving this kind of resistance, Comcast announced it would drop 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:52.440 the bid just a few months after it had first 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:57.520 announced its intention, and uh and Roberts had said he 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.280 was very disappointed in the Disney Board of Directors for 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.800 not coming in and communicating with him. He thought that 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.159 it was the best deal for both companies. Meanwhile, the 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:13.040 Board of Directors didn't UH didn't really dignify that particular 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.960 aunt h statement with a response. Also in two thousand four, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:24.359 Comcast purchased a little company called tech TV, and who boy, 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:29.399 is this a heck of a story. So Comcast carried 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.679 a company a channel called G four which catered to 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.480 video game fans. It was mostly content related to video 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:42.520 games in some way, including things like review shows, shows 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.480 that just did clips of video games, uh, game shows 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.680 that were video game related, lots of stuff like that. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.120 Tech TV, on the other hand, was a more general 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.960 technology based channel where they had everything from product reviews 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.840 to h question and answer like people could call in 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.440 and ask experts how to do certain things with their computers, 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.240 like how to install motherboards, that kind of stuff like 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.560 actual technical help um as well as shows that were 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.560 things like like they had their own video game review shows. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.960 So there were there were competing shows on the two channels. 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.639 So Comcast purchases tech TV in two thousand four and 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.680 then merges it with G four, creating the G four 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:30.440 tech TV channel, and then kind of letting the two 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.240 slates of of programming battle it out to see which 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.879 ones would remain and which ones they would get rid of. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.800 And I've got a lot of friends who worked either 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.399 for G four or tech TV, and I hope to 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:48.520 do an episode in the future. I've already recorded some 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.080 interviews about this. Actually, I hope to do an episode 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.040 in the future about tech TV and G four and 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:58.120 the merging of the two, and to include interview segments 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.480 that I have gathered over time. So that's something I 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:04.359 want to do in the future, and it will definitely 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.919 be a long episode, probably a multi partner because it 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.480 was so complicated. It was a venture that people when 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.920 when these channels first started, they were really excited about 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.840 them because this was Uh, these were industries that were 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.840 all getting more and more important over time. People were 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.200 getting more interested in technology and computers and video games. 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.320 But when you get these big corporations like Comcast involved, 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.639 sometimes the ideas that people had when they first founded 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:37.960 the channel end up getting changed or lost or or discarded, 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.200 and uh, it creates a very emotional kind of story. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.160 So keep in tune with tech stuff. Let me know 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:48.600 if that sounds interesting to you, because I do hope 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:50.280 to do it in the future. I still have to 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:52.919 do several more interviews in order to get kind of 0:21:52.960 --> 0:22:02.399 a full story of it moving on with Comcast. By 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:05.000 the way, G four tech TV doesn't exist anymore. In 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.119 case you were wondering if if you weren't aware, G 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.720 four tech TV eventually went away and I believe became 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.760 the Spike Network. If I'm not mistaken, or it's no, 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.320 it's Esquire, I'm sorry, it's the Square Network. I believe 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.520 um Esquire would eventually take over for G four tech TV, 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:26.760 and so that channel no longer exists, and uh, a 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.760 lot of good people worked for that channel over time. Anyway, 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.680 two thousand five, Comcast joins a group of investors, which 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.879 included Sony Corporation of America, to purchase a twenty steak 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.600 in Metro Goldwyn Meyer better known as MGM Studios, so 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.080 the entertainment studios that produced lots of movies, including the 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:51.080 James Bond franchise. It turned out to be a pretty 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:55.440 tough investment, so five years later, in two thousand ten, 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:01.240 MGM would file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy and they would 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.920 emerge from bankruptcy after a little more than a month 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:10.120 after entering bankruptcy with the creditors MGMs creditors taking control 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:12.560 of the company. So that was a pretty rough time. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:14.480 I mean, it was an investment, it was a gamble, 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:21.200 and unfortunately for the investors, the market for DVDs was 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.880 really falling out by that point, and that ended up 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:28.640 taking a big hit. MGM took a big hit from that. 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.560 That same year two five, that is, Comcast unveiled at 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:36.000 digital phone service and plans to purchase internet businesses, further 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.000 getting involved in both the delivery and production of cable 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:42.800 content both on TV and on the Internet. So if 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:46.159 you have ever looked at Comcast ex Affinity, which is 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:50.639 the brand for their digital service to homes, you often 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:53.000 will see that it can be bundled where you get 0:23:53.520 --> 0:24:00.160 phone service, cable television, and internet broadband all bundled together. That's, 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:04.240 you know it calculated approach that Comcasts made back in 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:09.000 this time. In two thousand and seven, that's when Comcast 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:14.320 actually acquired Fandango, the movie ticket service, the one that 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:19.639 kind of precipitated this whole discussion about Comcast in the 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.720 first place, because if you recall from episode one of 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.919 this series, I mentioned that I started looking into this 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:30.560 after I had problems buying Star Wars tickets because the 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.480 Fandango service had been overwhelmed by demand and it pretty 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:36.800 much collapsed. By the way, in case you were worried, 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.560 I did eventually get Star Wars tickets for opening night. 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:42.520 I just had to wait till the next morning. It's 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:46.520 just I am not a good Jedi. I don't have patience. 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:49.480 So it was a tough, tough twenty four hours or 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:53.600 so at any rate. Comcast purchased Fandango back in two 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:58.159 thousand and seven, and uh, Fandango is one of those 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:04.800 services that I personally find a little frustrating. I much 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:11.120 prefer when movie theaters have their own, uh theater specific 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:16.200 services to to sell tickets to customers, because you don't 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:18.439 have to worry if there's a huge amount of demand 0:25:18.680 --> 0:25:25.200 for the overall film, typically speaking, because it's distributed amongst 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:28.080 all those theaters. It's when you have a centralized service 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:32.520 where all that demand is going to a single collection 0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:36.000 of servers where you start running into these problems. And 0:25:36.160 --> 0:25:40.320 granted the Star Wars issue was a special case, it's 0:25:40.359 --> 0:25:44.240 not like that's going to happen with every movie. For example, 0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:46.919 Jim and the Holograms. Don't think that one's going to 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:52.280 collapse the system, even though it's truly outrageous, truly truly 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:58.600