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In 2011, Comcast got $18.9M in subsidies to offer discounted Internet to schools [Comcast Roundup]

"Now President Barack Obama wants phone subscribers to pay as much as $5 more per year on their bills to connect almost all U.S. schools to high-speed Internet, an expansion of a $2.3-billion-a-year program that rankles some Republicans. Ninety-seven percent of U.S. classrooms are connected to the Internet, up from 14 percent when the program known as E-rate was created in 1997. School administrators now say just connecting isn’t enough -- they need speed and service in more classrooms and that costs more."

  • AT&T, Comcast Gain From Subsidy Paid for by Customers [Bloomberg] “Now President Barack Obama wants phone subscribers to pay as much as $5 more per year on their bills to connect almost all U.S. schools to high-speed Internet, an expansion of a $2.3-billion-a-year program that rankles some Republicans. Ninety-seven percent of U.S. classrooms are connected to the Internet, up from 14 percent when the program known as E-rate was created in 1997. School administrators now say just connecting isn’t enough — they need speed and service in more classrooms and that costs more.”
  • Twitter and Comcast expand their tweet-based TV viewing to nine more providers [Engadget] “Comcast and Twitter made it easy to watch TV online when they launched their SeeIt social platform, but the service has only been truly useful for Comcast customers watching NBCUniversal shows. It’s about to become much more relevant, though, as Comcast has reached deals with nine new channel and TV service providers. ABC, A&E Networks, AMC, Cablevision, Charter, Crown Media Family Networks, Discovery, Fox and Time Warner Cable should all support SeeIt’s “watch now” links in tweets as soon as the first quarter of 2014. “
  • Tennis Channel takes on Comcast again [Philadelphia Inquirer] “Tennis Channel has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the legal question of whether Comcast should make Tennis’ 24-hour sports channel available to nearly all Comcast TV subscribers. At stake is millions of dollars in revenue for Tennis Channel and an interpretation of the 1992 Cable Act in how it relates to protecting independent programmers.”
  • FCC Unlikely to Bless a Comcast-TWC Deal: Regulator [Wall Street Journal] “‘The Obama administration has applied greater scrutiny to proposed mergers and acquisitions,’ an FCC official said, citing examples including AT&T‘s attempted takeover of T-Mobile US, a deal that was abandoned after the Justice Department sued to block it. The DOJ’s opposition to the US Airways-American Airlines merger led to a settlement last month.”
  • Comcast Beats Apple and Amazon on Digital Sales of ‘Despicable Me 2? [Variety] “Comcast is touting the success of its just-launched early electronic sell-through service — with the cable giant taking the No. 1 spot in digital sales of Universal’s “Despicable Me 2? for the week ended Dec. 3, according to the studio. The operator quietly launched the Xfinity TV Store on Nov. 19, offering subscribers select movies for purchase several weeks ahead of DVD release.”
Companies: Comcast

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