Comcast Roundup: Competing with ESPN, greatest Comcast photo ever and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

• Yo, Happy Thanksgiving. Comcast is celebrating, first by bringing the Yule log to OnDemand in HD, and in more ways below.

• Forbes reports that this Thanksgiving, employees of Comcast, General Electric, NBC and Vivendi should all pray that the deal to give Comcast a majority stake in NBC goes through. If the deal fails, Forbes suggests, all those involved will be hurt.
• New York Times Media Decoder blog reports that Upper Darby princess and now NBC star Tina Fey hosted an Ad Council event and liberally joked about the possible Comcast-NBC merger. “It leaves me wondering,” she reportedly said, “will I have to change the name of my show from ’30 Rock’ to ‘Industrial Park Along the Schuylkill River?”

After the jump, Chicago Tribune video on becoming a Comcast customer service agent and the photo we hope will someday be on the currency of the global nation state that Comcast creates after it outlasts Google and Facebook in a universal war of empires. We assume this will happen in 2012.

• The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez gets out of his newsroom cubicle and maybe feels a little holiday joy, writing that Comcast’s already celebrated holiday show has now taken on a 3D explosion. Even GPTMC’s uwishunu is bumping the show.
• paidContent reports that Comcast is rolling out local sports news sites to compete with ESPN’s latest pushes.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The New York Times reports that an advertising-dependent broadcast network model ensures that Comcast is more interested in the cable channels than NBC the network in its pursuit of purchasing the company.
• The Associated Press reports that, yeah, Vivendi is nearing its decision on whether to sell NBC or not. On the same day, though, the New York Times cites anonymous sources in reporting that talks between GE and Vivendi have stalled and that the two could be at least $500 million apart in valuing NBC.
• Bloomberg reports that Vivendi really does want out of NBC ownership, but they are trying to squeeze every last dime out of selling their share. H/T Philly Tech News
• The Post’s Kang also reports that another analyst has written of a likely lengthy review of the Comcast-NBC merger if it would come to fruition, this analysis suggesting it could stretch to the end of 2010.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Cable Digital News reports on Comcast partnering with its owned subsidiary thePlatform, which is trying new ways to send the proposed TV Everywhere platform to be, uhm, everywhere.
• The Associated Press reports that John Malone, whose Liberty Media controls DirecTV, says Comcast purchasing NBC would give it “too much market power.” Washington Post tech blogger Cecilia Kang reports that many small cable and online video companies make the same claim.
• The Inquirer reports that three men have been indicted on charges of hacking in Comcast e-mail and voice mail service last year.

The Chicago Tribune has a video package on what it takes to be a Comcast customer service agent.
http://chicagotribune.vid.trb.com/player/PaperVideoTest.swf
When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST