BRIAN'S $15 BILLION BET

First, let's review the terms of the bet:

* Comcast is wagering about $15 billion (approximately half in cash and half in equity shares in its cable networks) in exchange for half of the New NBC Universal.

* If Comcast gets more than $15 billion back from the New NBC Universal in a reasonable timeframe, the bet will have paid off.

Comcast gets to keep half of the cash flow of the new NBC Universal each year, less interest costs. In 2009, a crappy year, New NBC Universal will generate about $3 billion of cash flow. Subtract, say, $1 billion of interest payments (on $9 billion of debt), and you're left with net cash flow of about $2 billion a year. Comcast's share of that, therefore, will be about $1 billion a year.

Some scenarios:

* Let's assume the New NBC continues to grow. Comcast will get its money back in 10 years. Any more cash or remaining value in NBC from then on will be upside.

* Let's assume that the new NBC Universal never grows again. Comcast will get its money back in 15 years.

* Let's assume that the New NBC Universal starts shrinking but doesn't completely fall apart. Comcast will get its money back in 20 years.

* Let's assume that the New NBC Universal completely collapses. Brian Roberts will be proven to have been an idiot.

So that's the bet.

Now, what is Brian Roberts really thinking?

He's thinking: I've got cash coming out of my ears, I know the world is changing, and I've decided to buy myself a hedge.

A hedge against what?

A hedge against two things:

* Further extortionist increases in cable content carriage fees
* The gradual conversion of cable into dumb pipes that just deliver Internet access and IP-video

THE HEDGE AGAINST CABLE PROGRAMMING FEE INCREASES

Specifically, Brian Roberts is thinking that he's sick to death of that bastard Bob Iger at Disney holding him up for higher carriage fees on ESPN, et al, every few years. And, before he bought NBC, Brian was sick to death of that bastard Jeff Zucker holding him up for higher fees on CNBC, et al. Etc.

Now, in the future, if anyone does any holding up, Brian Roberts is:

1) going to cash in, too (because now he owns a lot of cable programming), and

2) going to have more leverage in telling Bob Iger, et al, to take a hike. Until now, if Brian Roberts wanted to tell Bob Iger to take his ESPN and stuff it, he would risk losing a significant percentage of cable subs who are sports addicts. Now, Brian Roberts will be able to say to Bob Iger, "Actually, we've decided to make ESPN a premium channel, because most of our subs are happy with the many offerings of NBC Sports, including our new NBC Sports ESPN-killer. So if you want to jack up your fees, that's fine, we'll ask our subs to pay you for ESPN directly." At which time, Bob Iger, no fool, might say, "I think we'll stick with our current fees."

Either way, Brian Roberts is okay.

Those two hedges, by the way, may well help either the New NBC or the Old Comcast drive more dollars to the bottom line. If this happens, Brian Roberts will get his money back even faster.

THE HEDGE AGAINST CABLE BECOMING A DUMB PIPE AND PROGRAMMING GOING A LA CARTE

Eventually, the current cable TV business is toast. There is NO WAY today's teenagers are going to be shelling out $150 a month to get 500 channels they don't watch when what they do watch is available for free over the Internet. Eventually, therefore, this whole "carriage fee" game is done—or at least radically changed.

But it's going to take a while. At least 10 years.

And all those future adults who are going to be watching TV for free over the Internet in 10 years are still going to need Internet access (or else how are they going to watch?). And Comcast is in a great position to keep providing it.

So, regardless of what happens, Comcast won't go to zero. But if programming goes a la carte, providers like Comcast won't get to mark up channels by buying them at wholesale prices, bundling them together, and selling them at retail anymore. Instead, they'll have to settle for getting, say, $50 a month for providing your Internet access and phone and just letting all the video providers sell to you directly.

Now, providing a fat dumb pipe is not a bad business. And Internet access might be so important at that point that Comcast might be able to jack up prices to, say, $75, with no programming fees (which would be less than you pay for your internet access and phone now).

But it might be a worse business than the one cable has today. In which case, Brian will have hedged his bets by taking a big chunk of cash and buying something else with it.

OF COURSE, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A GUARANTEE

How can Brian Roberts lose?

A couple of ways.

First, he can blow the execution, like AOL Time Warner did. But this is a business that Brian already knows, and it won't involve smashing two completely different cultures that hate each other together. So the execution risk is less.

Second, cable can become a dumb pipe AND the TV programming business can blow up like the newspaper business—causing Brian Roberts to lose on both sides.

If that happens, Brian Roberts would have been better off selling the whole thing and buying a fertilizer company.

But Brian Roberts is a media mogul. And there isn't a media mogul on earth who would give up being a media mogul to run a fertilizer company.

Click to zoom in.

Too much fat, not enough flavor, and a tongue-itching texture. No, I don't want this in my diet, thank you very much. [Freepress via BoingBoing]

As it turns out, Xfinity is just a rebranding of TV Everywhere—a free service that allows you to play your tv content on up to three authenticated internet devices. We already knew that would be rolling out in December, but Zats has specified an exact date of December 12th.

As for remote DVR scheduling, details are a little hazier. Comcast has "promised" that the feature is on the horizon, but no specific dates have been announced. [Zats]

In claiming the Hulu is safe from potential fees, Burke is speaking of behalf of the Comcast's recently absorbed NBC Universal, which has a 27% stake in the Hulu venture—the same as News Corp and ABC. In other words, while Comcast execs are now privy to whatever discussions are going inside Hulu, they can't really guarantee anything without cooperation from the site's other partners. Including the one that's loudly demanding that Hulu develop some kind of pay service, soon.

In other words, Burke's answer assures one thing: that nobody, especially Hulu, knows exactly how the site will change over the next year. [Silicon Alley Insider]

NBC, Hulu, USA, Bravo, Syfy, Oxygen, Versus, CNBC, MSNBC, Universal Pictures movie studio, Telemundo, Universal Studios parks, Focus Features, and broadcast rights to the 2012 Olympics.

No, I can't see why this might be a bad idea at all.

PRESS RELEASE
COMCAST AND GE TO CREATE LEADING ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY Positions Comcast and NBCU to Lead the Next Phase of Media Industry's Evolution
Builds on Diverse Cable Portfolio, Accelerates Digital Offerings and Expands Customer Choice Entity Will Deliver Strong Cash Flow With Conservative Capital Structure NBCU Businesses Valued at $30 Billion, Comcast to Contribute Businesses Valued at $7.25 Billion Comcast To Own 51%, GE 49% Interest in NBCU Jeff Zucker to Lead New York-based Venture _______________________________________________
PHILADELPHIA, PA and FAIRFIELD, CT – Dec. 3, 2009 – Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture that will be 51 percent owned by Comcast, 49 percent owned by GE and managed by Comcast. The joint venture, which will consist of the NBC Universal (NBCU) businesses and Comcast's cable networks, regional sports networks and certain digital properties and certain unconsolidated investments, will be well positioned to compete in an increasingly dynamic and competitive media and digital environment.
The combination of assets creates a leading media and entertainment company with the proven capability to provide some of the world's most popular entertainment, news and sports content, movies and film libraries to consumers anytime, anywhere. The joint venture will provide consumers the broadest possible access to content, and support high-quality, award-winning content development across all platforms including film, television, and online. It will be anchored by an outstanding portfolio of cable networks and regional sports networks that will account for about 80 percent of its cash flow, including USA, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Versus, CNBC and MSNBC. The joint venture will be financially strong with a robust cash-flow-generation capability.
Under the terms of the transaction, GE will contribute to the joint venture NBCU's businesses valued at $30 billion, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks, and unconsolidated investments, subject to $9.1 billion in debt to third party lenders. Comcast will contribute its cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its ten regional sports networks, and certain digital media properties, collectively valued at $7.25 billion, and make a payment to GE of approximately $6.5 billion of cash subject to certain adjustments based on various events between signing and closing.
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Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts said, "This deal is a perfect fit for Comcast and will allow us to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform ‘anytime, anywhere' media that American consumers are demanding. In particular, NBCU's fast- growing, highly profitable cable networks are a great complement to our industry-leading distribution business. Today's announced transaction will increase our capabilities in content and cable networks. At the same time, it will enhance consumer choice and accelerate the development of new digital products and services. GE has provided NBCU with a great home and has dramatically and positively transformed the business. We are honored that under this agreement Comcast would take over the stewardship of this important collection of assets and are absolutely committed to investing in NBCU and ensuring that it is a vibrant, financially strong company able to thrive in a rapidly evolving marketplace by delivering innovative programming. We are particularly pleased to be creating this new joint venture with GE and Jeff Immelt and to have their continued involvement.
"For Comcast, this transaction is strategically compelling and will generate attractive financial returns and build shareholder value," continued Roberts. "It is also expected to be immediately accretive and will also allow us to maintain our strong commitment to returning capital to shareholders– all while increasing the scale, capabilities and value of our cable distribution, content and digital assets. Significantly, it is entirely consistent with our intense focus on value creation and our disciplined strategy of pursuing profitable growth in areas complementary to our distribution business."
GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said, "The combination of Comcast's cable and regional sports networks and digital media properties and NBCU will deliver strong returns for GE shareholders and business partners. NBCU has been a great business for GE over the past two decades. We have generated an average annual return of 11 percent, while expanding into cable, movies, parks and international media. We are reducing our ownership stake from 80 percent to 49 percent of a more valuable entity. By doing so, GE gets a good value for NBCU. This transaction will generate approximately $8 billion of cash at closing with an expected small after-tax gain. We have many opportunities to invest in our high-technology infrastructure businesses at attractive returns. I believe that the new NBCU will deliver value for both Comcast and GE in the future. We will give consumers and advertisers more choice and our cable and digital assets will be second to none. I am confident Brian Roberts and his team at Comcast will be great partners."
Comcast also announced the creation of Comcast Entertainment Group (CEG), which will house Comcast's interest in the joint venture and will stand alongside Comcast Cable, which operates the company's traditional cable business.
Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke said, "Both Comcast and NBCU have excellent track records of integrating and growing multi-billion dollar businesses, including significant content acquisitions. In addition, we have both developed some of the country's most popular programming and built many of the most watched and valued networks in the industry. We are confident that we'll be even stronger together, and look forward to working with Jeff Zucker and the NBCU team to deliver the best consumer experience."
Jeff Zucker, current president and CEO of NBCU, will be CEO of the new joint venture and will report to Burke. Zucker said, "Combining the assets of NBCU, ranging from our suite of cable properties and two broadcast networks to a legendary film studio and global theme park business, with the content assets and resources of Comcast, will enable us to continue to thrive in an ever-changing media landscape. Consumers of all of our products – on screens large and small – will have the benefit of
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enhanced content and experiences, delivered to them in new and better ways as a result of this transaction. This marks the start of a new era for NBCU, and I'm genuinely excited that I will be leading this wonderful organization, along with the Comcast team, at this important time in our history."
Headquarters for the business will remain in New York. The joint venture board will have three directors nominated by Comcast and two nominated by GE.
Key Elements Of The Transaction:
• NBCU will borrow approximately $9.1 billion from third-party lenders and distribute the cash to GE.
• NBCU, valued at $30 billion, will be contributed to the newly formed joint venture. Comcast will contribute its programming businesses and certain other properties valued at $7.25 billion.
• GE will acquire Vivendi's 20% interest in NBCU for $5.8 billion. GE will purchase approximately 38% of Vivendi's interest (or approximately 7.66% of all outstanding NBCU shares) from Vivendi for $2 billion in September 2010, if the Comcast transaction is not closed by then. GE will acquire the remaining 62% of Vivendi's interest (or approximately 12.34% of all outstanding NBCU shares) for $3.8 billion when the transaction closes.
• Comcast will make a payment to GE of approximately $6.5 billion in cash subject to certain adjustments based on various events between signing and closing.
• The new venture will be 51% owned by Comcast and 49% owned by GE. • GE expects to realize $9.8 billion pre-tax in cash before debt reduction and transaction fees and after buyout of the Vivendi stake. GE expects to realize approximately $8 billion in cash
after paying down the existing NBCU debt and transaction fees. • GE will be entitled to elect to cause the joint venture to redeem one-half of its interest at year
3 1⁄2 and its remaining interest at year 7. The joint venture's obligations to complete those purchases will be subject to the venture's leverage ratio not exceeding 2.75X EBITDA and the venture continuing to hold investment-grade ratings. Comcast also has certain rights to purchase GE's interest in the venture at specified times. All such transactions would be done at a 20% premium to public market value with 50% sharing of upside above the closing valuation.
• To the extent the joint venture is not required to meet GE's redemption requests, Comcast will provide a backstop up to a maximum of $2.875 billion for the first redemption and a total backstop of $5.750 billion.
The transaction has been approved by the Board of Directors of GE and Comcast. It is subject to receipt of various regulatory approvals, including clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, and approvals of the Federal Communications Commission and certain international agencies. The transaction is also subject to other customary closing conditions. NBCU has obtained $9.85 billion of committed financing through a consortium of banks led by J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Citi. This financing is expected to receive solid investment-grade ratings from S&P and Moody's.
Comcast and GE intend to submit regulatory applications supporting the pro-competitive and strong public interest benefits of the transaction, including how the joint venture will better meet the entertainment, communications and information needs of the American public.
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"We are prepared to make affirmative commitments to ensure that the pro-consumer and public interest benefits of the transaction are realized," Roberts said. "Today, we have announced a number of initial commitments that expand on the capabilities that Comcast and NBCU have built over the years, and the new opportunities that this combination makes possible. These commitments address the needs of various audiences and stakeholders, and we will provide additional details on these and other commitments in our public interest filing with the Federal Communications Commission."
Advisors
Morgan Stanley is lead financial advisor to Comcast with UBS and BofA Merrill Lynch acting as co- advisors. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is Comcast's legal advisor. J.P. Morgan is lead financial advisor to GE with Goldman Sachs and Citi acting as co-advisors. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is GE's and NBCU's legal advisor.
Teleconference and Webcast
Comcast will host a conference call with the financial community today, December 3, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) to discuss this morning's announcement with Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts, Comcast Chief Operating Officer Stephen B. Burke and Comcast Chief Financial Officer, Michael J. Angelakis. The conference call will be broadcast live via the Company's Investor Relations website at www.cmcsa.com or www.cmcsk.com. Those parties interested in participating via telephone should dial (800) 263- 8495 with the conference ID number 44380493. A telephone replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations website starting at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on December 3, 2009 and will be available until December 8, 2009 at midnight Eastern Time. To access the rebroadcast, please dial (800) 642-1687 conference ID 44380493.
GE will also host a webcast with the financial community today, December 3, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time / 7:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss this morning's announcement with GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin and NBCU President and CEO Jeff Zucker. The webcast will be available at www.ge.com/investors. A replay will be available later in the day on the site.
Additional media materials are available at www.ge.com/newnbcu, www.comcast.com/nbcutransaction and https://www.nbcumv.com/mv/.
The description of this transaction included in this press release is qualified in its entirety by, and is subject to, the terms of the definitive documentation for the transaction to be filed by Comcast with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a Current Report on Form 8-K.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world's toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.
About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communication products and services. With 23.8 million cable customers, 15.7 million high-speed Internet customers, and 7.4 million Comcast Digital Voice customers, Comcast is principally
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involved in the development, management and operation of cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.
Comcast's content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One, ten sports networks operated by Comcast Sports Group and Comcast Interactive Media, which develops and operates Comcast's Internet businesses, including Comcast.net (www.comcast.net). Comcast also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.
About NBC Universal:
NBC Universal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.
Combined Assets/Properties
The assets and properties owned or controlled by the new joint venture will include some of the best known brands in the entertainment industry, including:
• Several of television's most successful cable networks, including USA, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, E!, Style, Versus and the Golf Channel;
• One of the nation's largest television groups, including:
o o
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The NBC Television Network; Local broadcast TV stations in ten top U.S. markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; The national Telemundo Network and 16 Telemundo O&O stations in locations such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago and Dallas/Ft.Worth;
• Preeminent television production operations that produce Emmy Award winning programs like The Office, 30 Rock, Law & Order, Heroes, Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, as well as syndicate operations through NBC Universal Domestic and International Distribution and a 3,000-title library of television episodes;
• NBC News, the leading source of global news and information in the United States with top-rated programs such as Nightly News with Brian Williams, Today and Meet the Press;
• A robust sports programming lineup featuring the Olympics (through 2012), NBC Sunday Night Football, NHL/Stanley Cup, PGA Tour, US Open, Ryder Cup, Wimbledon and the Kentucky Derby, Versus, Golf Channel and Comcast's 10 regional sports networks;
• Universal Pictures, which has produced Academy Award winners Atonement, The Bourne Ultimatum, Brokeback Mountain, Ray and A Beautiful Mind, Focus Features, which recently produced Away We Go, and an extensive movie library with more than 4,000 titles through Universal Studios Home Entertainment;
• Fast growing digital media properties including CNBC.com, iVillage, NBC.com, Fandango, and Daily Candy, which together generate more than 40 million unique users each month;
• Ownership of theme parks in Florida (50% interest), California (100% interest) and a financial interest in a theme park in Japan;
• A minority interest in A&E, Biography, The History Channel, The Weather Channel, Lifetime and Hulu.com.

This is hardly a surprise. After yesterday's news that GE would buy its NBC stake from Vivendi for $5.8 billion, the closing of the deal was basically a formality.

Now comes the next phase of hard work. The deal is expected to take a year to fully close, as the government scrutinizes it.

From Comcast:

The meter will first show data usage being consumed in the current month. Over time, it will show the most recent three months of usage (including the current month).

As you can see, it's simple and easy and it should provide customers with helpful information about their overall bandwidth consumption. We've found that even some of the most technically savvy people have very little information or understanding about their monthly data usage. We believe many will be surprised by how little data they actually consume.

The meter displays usage on a per Gigabyte (GB) basis, over a calendar month, which may be different from the customer's monthly billing period cycle. The meter updates roughly every 3 hours and is designed to display usage conservatively and in favor of customers, such that it rounds DOWN usage to the nearest GB rather than rounding up.

It's important to underscore that almost 99% of our customers should not be concerned about their monthly data usage or ever crossing our 250 GB per month excessive usage threshold. The median customer consumes approximately 2 to 4 GB of data in a month.

For the fraction of less than 1% of our customers who are concerned about exceeding our excessive use threshold, this meter will help them monitor and calibrate their usage. It may also help them identify potential problems such as the presence of a bot or virus or excessive use of their bandwidth via an unsecured wireless router.

What's unique about this meter is that it measures all data usage over a cable modem. So, if a customer is using multiple computers and other devices, such as an online gaming console, laptop, or additional wireless devices (such as an iPod Touch), the meter will report data usage for all of those computers and devices combined.

This development has been a long time coming for Comcast power users who have been relying on third party bandwidth meters in an attempt to avoid exceeding the monthly 250 GB data cap. Unfortunately, the"short" trial has to wrap up in Portland before Comcast starts rolling it out nationally. [Comcast]

Currently in beta with 5,000 subscribers, here's what we know:

• It's free with a subscription
• You authenticate up to 3 devices through Comcast.net or Fancast.com
• Video playback on Move Networks player
• Video on Demand content, though no word on HD content
• Streaming will count against Comcast's 250GB monthly bandwidth caps

But don't take our word for it. Watch the whole interview with Comcast's Amy Banse here:

What do you think? Does this sound better than Hulu to you? [NewTeeVee via mediaexperiences2go via Engadget]

The New York Times says Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have confirmed the addresses are real, and that they're helping affected users recover their accounts.

Even though you generally have to be pretty damn gullible to fall for one of these fake sites (or open strange-looking email attachments), now might be a good time to change your Web mail password...something you should be doing every now and then anyway. [BBC via New York Times]

In fact, while the 10 biggest cable operators have deployed 16.7 settop boxes with integrated CableCards to date, they've only issued 443,000 standalone CableCards. And during the last two years, full CableCard devices have been installed 38x more often than CableCards alone.

(I'm also betting that the percentage of population that orders more than one CableCard for dual/quad tuning is greater than the percentage of population who orders more than one cable box, which means the CableCard-exclusive population may be even smaller than it seems...but I could be wrong.)

It's tough to tell why CableCards haven't been more popular. Then again, limited VoD options and a lack of consumer education might both have something to do with it. [Multichannel News via EngadgetHD]

Cohen is Comcast's executive vice-president for broadband. And of course, he believes that the FCC should get their hands off the internet. Because, you know, everything is perfectly fine now that private companies are controlling it, making sure to block or throttle down any traffic they want, like they did a few months ago. And these internet companies just want to keep doing this because—according to him—that's what benefits all of us, the consumers and companies trying to make free use of a vital infrastructure. One that should be neutral for everyone.

The Comcast VP gets the demagogical corpospeak award of the month with a headline that summarizes his article perfectly: "Does the internet need more regulation? FCC to decide". As in: "Oh, the big BAD government wants to regulate YOUR internet. Are you going to let them do that, your ignorant peasants you?" This comes from a guy who is working for Comcast. You know, the company that the FCC took to court because they were illegally throttling down bandwidth for certain internet applications.

So, does the internet need more regulation, Señor Cohen? Yes, it does. Regulation against you arbitrarily deciding to regulate the service we pay for. And so you and your pals in the communications and entertainment industries don't get all cozy and snuggly to take services or companies out of the network, just because you want to at any given point.

That's not regulation against consumers and companies. That's regulation to avoid that you keep doing whatever you want to in your own benefit, and against the interests of everyone else. [Comcast via Crunchgear]

Yes, now you too can download HD video as fast as someone in Roppongi, provided you live in urban Minnesota and have $370 a month to pony up for the privilege. But really, this isn't meant for normal customers who just check email and hit up MSN News, It's meant for businesses and people who download stuff ALL DAY and it's meant as ammunition for anti-FiOS marketing.

Hell, Optimum Online has been offering up its 101Mbps Ultra package in the Northeast since earlier this year, but it isn't sweeping the area by storm. On the one hand, I certainly appreciate that these ISPs are pushing the limits of broadband. On the other hand, until it's available to more people and for a price somewhat approaching affordable, what's the point? If you're trying to show that you can beat FiOS speeds for more than three times the price, well, nice work. But until the prices are lowered and the tech is proven to work when more than 25 people are using it, I'm not sure what it does for us.

Comcast, for example, argued for the definition of "basic" broadband to be a paltry 0.256 Mbps downstream and upstream. Verizon aimed for 0.768 Mbps downstream and 0.200 Mbps upstream. Japan's rate? 92.8 Mbps. Korea has 80.8 Mbps and France offers 51 Mbps.

So what it all boils down to is this: these companies want stimulus funds, but they don't want to, you know, improve their services with these funds. Instead, they want money for continuing to rank near the bottom of internet speeds offered by major industrialized nations. Here's hoping the FCC sees through their BS and forces them to raise the bar if they're getting any taxpayer money.

Update: Verizon writes in to tell us that they aren't going after any stimulus funds and don't foresee accepting any. Why exactly they're pushing to define broadband by such slow speeds, however, isn't clear. [MSNBC]

Now it appears they're at it again, although what the target(s) will be this time around is anybody's guess. A few of the names floated so far are Viacom Inc and Time Warner Inc.

It's most likely not Disney, said former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "They may want to recapture their dreams of going after Disney, but not with Disney specifically," he said. "I am sure [Comcast] Brian Roberts and Steve Burke (COO) have Time Warner high on their computer screens."

The analysts, in a word, were weary of such a move. [Reuters via Slashdot]

You can forward calls from your Comcast number to your iPhone, and it pulls voicemails from your Comcast home phone and Comcast email into a single inbox. (Though why you'd use the email inside of Comcast's app over the iPhone's actual email app is beyond me.) It'll also sync your iPhone's address book to a universal Comcast address book. The program guide is nice enough, with bookmarks and reminders, even if it's not the flashiest TV listings setup we've seen.

I got the occasional error message that the app ran out of memory, and it'd be nice to be able to do some account management, like order On Demand movies for later from my phone, program my Comcast DVR box, or pay the bill.

Overall, it's a surprisingly nice little app, provided you actually use your Comcast email address and have their Digital Voice service as your home phone.

[iTunes]

Right now, Comcast's top tier plan allows 50Mbps downloading for $189/month. Theoretically, as great as 100Mbps would be, it would run $380/month (no, the price probably won't scale that way). Still, if $380 were the price and you download a lot of movies and stuff, you just might break even. Let's see...if a DVD is $15, that's 25 pirated movies to reach your subscription price. And on 100Mbps, that's downright doable. In, like, an hour.

The rumor has credence as Comcast promised 100Mb connections by this year. But that was way back in 2008 so most of us forgot about it. [the Inquirer]

Sounds crazy, but he cites the historical example of rural telephony, where the public owned the wire, not private companies. It'd work like this: A city or neighborhood would all have fiber run to it at once, and then you'd purchase a share of the fiber and connect to whatever ISP you want. There'd be a connection point where any company could pay to set up equipment and offer service, which is sort of how it works in Amsterdam, Slater explains.

Once a normal thing, it's now a pretty powerful idea, choosing your ISP—in most places, you don't have a choice. There's Comcast. There's Time Warner. Or whoever the local monopoly is. Choice breeds competition: Where do you think cable companies are rolling out fiber-fast internet? It's not a coincidence it's where Verizon or AT&T are offering high-speed internet. And this could be the way to speed up the painfully slow rollout of Godzilla internet in the US, especially in those rural areas. [Fora.TV via digg]

This guy HAS to be related to Christian Slater. I was like, "Hey it looks like Christian Slater giving a lecture." And then the name "Derek SLATER" popped up. Speaking of, did anybody that watch show he had on NBC, where he had the split personality, before it got canceled? Surprisingly not bad.

The package includes 15Mbps upstream, and it's $100 a month. And everyone in Cablevision's service area—suburban New York—will be able to get a piece. Verizon FiOS's speediest package now looks comparatively pokey: 50Mbps down, 20Mbps up.

On the other hand, while we're dazzled by insane internet speeds that were previously exclusively to cradles of technology like Korea and Japan, we shouldn't forget the otherwise miserable state of broadband here. As Cablevision deploys DOCSIS 3.0 with full force, Time Warner is pulling back on it following the backlash to its proposed caps in cities outside of Beaumont, Texas. Meanwhile, Comcast employs caps and throttling, while AT&T tests caps on its U-Verse service.

So it's still going to be a while before we can pat our ISPs on the back for the wonderful, speedy service they're providing. [Bits]

Here is one harrowing tale:

The technician testified that he went to Trikes' Pinckney Road home Oct. 17, after Trikes complained his Internet service was too slow.

While at the defendant's home, the technician said, Trikes began discussing pornographic Web sites that he had visited online as well as a sexually explicit video that he said he found in a gas station garbage can. The technician said he began talking about his date later that evening "to ease the uncomfortableness" of the situation.

However, the witness said, Trikes then exposed his genitals, which made the technician extremely uncomfortable.

Needless to say, Trikes is now facing jail time for indecent exposure. No matter how you feel about Comcast, nobody deserves that. Seriously, It's the kind of reverse porno you will probably find in hell. [Consumerist via Digg and Image via Flickr]

Products we've seen to date—namely the Intel Media Processor, Yahoo! Connected TV platform and smattering of proprietary connected sets—have offered up a taste of what Flash support means for TVs, albeit through often-clumsy widget systems and the tolerable Flash Lite. Now—through another offshoot of its Open Screen Initiative—Adobe wants to expand Flash support to all kinds of hardware, in what looks like a bid to set a new VOD standard, inking deals with companies as diverse as Comcast, Broadcom, Netflix and Intel.

In theory, this means we'll see a wave of Flash-enabled DVRs, set-top boxes and HDTVs by the middle of this year, and they told us you'll see new Flash applications for the framework early next. Since Yahoo actually uses Flash in their own widget framework for TVs, they're not exactly competing—Adobe wins either way. Adobe's goal is to be just as ubiquitous on embedded devices as it is on computers connected to the web: Over 90 percent have the Flash plug-in installed.

The above is just one concept of how a Flash-based UI could look. Hulu just inched closer to millions of living rooms, and there's really no downside to that. [NYT]

Apple, the best-ranked hardware manufacturer, ranked 23rd on the list out of 113, which is fine, but nothing to write home about. HP and Compaq took the 72nd and 74th spots, respectively, and Dell was ranked all the way down at number 93. The study's author suspects Microsoft may be at fault for the PC manufacturers' low scores, though to be fair, this seems to be drawn from the "Ease of Use" rubric, which could refer either to hardware or software.

None of the hardware manufacturers came close to the top, however. Even Apple barely made it into the "Good" category, whereas retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble easily scored "Excellent."

Wireless and internet service providers scored painfully low. Charter Communications, an ISP, ranked last out of the whole group, and both Comcast and Verizon ranked in the bottom third. On the wireless side, AT&T and Verizon were crushed by, surprise surprise, Alltel and T-Mobile. But even Alltel only hit number 48. Check out the basic list below. [CNN]

Austin, San Antonio, Rochester, NY, and Greensboro, North Carolina are the next cities to suffer Time Warner's comparatively draconian 40GB caps at the high-end—Comcast's is 250GB, AT&T's is 150GB, and all of them suck.

Every gig you overshoot your cap costs a dollar, meaning an HD movie download from iTunes could end up costing another $5 on top the $20 you're paying for the movie. Just four HD movies (assuming a conservative 5GB per flick) would swallow half of your allowed data for the month. You might wanna lay off the high def YouTube and Hulu too. Oh yes, the squeeze on high def video that doesn't come direct from your cable box is here. Actually, can I just say the internet is dead? OK. The internet is dead. [BusinessWeek - Thanks Joshua!]

AT&T says they're not doing any of the actual spotting—the RIAA is handling that part—they're just "forwarding notices from content providers to our customers" to edumacate them. Cnet's Greg Sandoval reports that a Comcast executive said that they've sent customers two million warning notices about infringement. [A Comcast spokesperson later added that these letters weren't part of any new campaign, see below.]

What happens if you ignore AT&T's notices? Will they disconnect you? Here is their lovely wishy-washy answer that really doesn't say anything at all: "We are not suspending or terminating our customers' service. With that said, we do refer customers to our Acceptable Use Policy, which governs use of our service." Just keep in mind, it's the same AT&T that was plotting a massive, intelligent anti-piracy dragnet that would sweep their entire network for pirated content.

Update: Comcast adds via spokesperson that nothing's changed:

"Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, videogame, and other content owners to our customers. This is the same process we've had in place for years - nothing has changed. While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy."

Probably not a distinction they want, but since they're the only major ISP that's not seriously clamping down on bandwidth usage and hanging out with the RIAA at bars—the RIAA's new buddy group reportedly includes AT&T, Comcast and Cox—Verizon still looks like the best ISP around for people moving around less-than-legally shiny material (i.e., everyone on the internet), especially if you get FiOS. [Cnet via CrunchGear]

It's hard to conceive of harnessing that much bandwidth wirelessly while sitting outside a shopping center, enjoying an unseasonably warm March day. It's almost a joke, being able to watch Jon Stewart ream Jim Cramer—streamed via Hulu—while sitting in the backseat of a Lincoln Navigator doing 60 on the freeway. Having reviewed gadgets for almost a decade, I sometimes have to fake excitement that I may not truly feel in my loins. But this is different—real, honest-to-God wireless broadband made me freakin' giddy, even if it didn't deliver peak speeds at every spot where I parked.

If most of what we review is a chunk of the present, WiMax is from the future. Thankfully, it's the near future.

The Test
Clearwire is a wireless data service now majority owned by Sprint (but with Comcast and others holding stakes). Currently it's got the Clear WiMax service in both Portland and Baltimore. In Portland, it sells mobile and home modems that can pull down up to 4Mbps, but you know from reading Giz Explains that WiMax is already capable of a lot more: It's the first 4G network that's actually up and running in the US.

Clearwire gave me a chance to see what WiMax was like without any throttling: I got a USB dongle that could pull down whatever was out there. That turned out to be, in some places, nearly 13Mbps downstream—the current speed of your typical cable modem, and about 10 times what wired broadband delivered just a few years back.

I trekked around Portland, OR for a couple of days, testing the boundaries of the WiMax network, and spot testing in different locations around town to see what I got. I used the Motorola USBw25100 WiMax dongle, connected directly to a very sweet, very pimped-out HP Pavilion dv4 notebook that I borrowed for the occasion. (At the moment, there's no Mac driver for the WiMax modem, but as you can imagine that's in the works.)

As a helpful comparison, I used a 3G dongle from Verizon Wireless. I want to be clear that this isn't to be read as a test of Verizon's Portland network. However, that little USB modem held its own amazingly well, 3G beating 4G on a few occasions—at one point reaching a top speed of 3.3Mbps—so good on you, Verizon!

The tests were fairly simple, and resembled the ones we used for our Coast-to-Coast 3G Test last fall. I ran the Speakeasy Speed Test a minimum of five times in each location with each connection, then averaged those results. I loaded a very heavy page—the Wikimedia Commons Hubble Images page—at least five times, timing the pageload with the YSlow plug-in for Firefox. And I pinged local servers in three sets of 10 to determine latency. I chose locations based on their overall geographic variety, throwing in some locations that just made sense for me to visit, like my in-laws, and the family of my buddy Tom.

Here are the locations, neatly marked on the map, followed by a chart of test results:

View Larger Map

Hot Spots and Cold Spots
As you can see, though I got the kind of awesomeness that blisters during three of my stops, I saw some mediocrity in three more, and in one location, smack in the center of town, I got nothing at all. When I checked with Clearwire, they not surprisingly told me I had accidentally chosen four locations that were slated for improved coverage, the two downtown locations set to get lit up in the coming months.

The up side of the experience was exciting enough that the downside didn't bash my spirits. You'll notice in the chart that even when the connection wasn't that great, latency tended to stay low, and even when the connection was shabby, the download speeds tended to stay at or above 3G levels. I mean, before now, when was 1.2Mbps wireless considered a bad thing? Uploads were consistently just below 2Mbps—a far cry from the 10Mbps I can get with hard-wired cable, but pretty much on par with 3G.

Clearwire has to lease all of its cell towers just like any other wireless carrier, and not having a legacy network in place does keep it from automatically having a tower everywhere it's needed. Also, the fact that WiMax runs in the 2.5GHz band points to a need for more towers. 3G is in the 1.8 to 2.1GHz, and the proposed LTE operates in the 700MHz spectrum. Though WiMax's higher frequency may guarantee a more stronger signal closer in, it also has shorter range with the same power. WiMax doesn't feel like Wi-Fi—it can handle smooth handoffs from tower to tower at high speeds—but the Clearwire coverage map of Portland does look a bit like a tightly packed collection of hotspots.

This can be good news: Clearwire knows every inch of the city, and can look up any customer's home, workplace or favorite hangout to see if getting the service even makes sense. But it also means that if you're not covered—depending on how a school board votes about what happens on their rooftops, or what the local port authority has to say about radio antennas—it may be a while before that changes.

Rockin' Down the Highway
Like most carriers, Clearwire takes advantage the many tall cell towers that line the highway, meaning you get WiMax's sick bandwidth pretty much unbroken as you fly down the road at 60 or 70 miles per hour. In the following video—in 90 quick seconds—you'll see the following:
• Speakeasy speedtest showing roughly 13Mbps at 60 miles per hour
• Skype voice call (sorry we didn't do a video conference)
• Slingbox video that's being uploaded via WiMax at Clearwire's office, and downloaded via WiMax in the car
• Hulu, where we load up and begin watching a full-screen episode of The Daily Show, at 70 miles per hour

In Summary:

It's easy to reach download speeds that are four times the peak of today's best 3G networks

Power demand does not seem to be any greater than other wireless connections

Most available Clear services now are capped at 4Mbps, though uncapped plans may be available sometime this year

Only a handful of cities will have this service in 2009, with more to come in 2010

Wide fluctuations in bandwidth feel weird: 12Mbps upside makes 3Mbps feel like a disappointing trickle

Within Portland's city limits, there were plenty of dead zones that will hopefully be filled in soon

[More information on Clearwire service]

Yeah, this sounds exactly like what people need in their retail experience:

"At Sony Style Comcast Labs, trained staff show consumers how to unlock the full potential of their devices by demonstrating how Comcast's advanced delivery services integrate beautifully with Sony's hardware products and entertainment content." —Stan Glasgow, President and COO, Sony Electronics US

Anyone who is feeling masochistic tomorrow and wants to check this place out, please let us know how it is. It's located on the ground floor of the Comcast Center at 17th and JFK Boulevard.

Update: We have some pics from inside:

SONY ELECTRONICS AND COMCAST UNVEIL CO-BRANDED RETAIL STORE: SONY STYLE COMCAST LABS
Interactive Technology Lab will Debut a Live Demo of 100 Mbps

PHILADELPHIA – March 16, 2009 – Sony Electronics Inc., a world leader in consumer electronics and technology, and Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communications, are partnering to open a unique retail experience in the Comcast Center: Sony Style Comcast Labs. Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation, and Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, conceived the idea as a destination where consumers could learn about emerging technologies and experience new digital devices.

The co-branded retail store and technology lab, which opens to the public tomorrow, will showcase the latest innovative products and services from both companies and preview future Comcast technology, products and services.

"This is another great example of innovation and consumer technology being showcased in Philadelphia by Comcast. Comcast has attracted great partners like Sony that continue to benefit our citizens with cool products," said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Of the many future technologies on display, the following will be unveiled to Philadelphia consumers for the first time:
1) The Future of High-Speed Internet: 100 Mbps surfing and downloading live.
2) The Future of Home Phone Service: the enhanced cordless telephone – forget smart phones, this one is a genius with email, IM, text and Yellow Pages.

"Consumer electronics are becoming increasingly advanced, and the strategy behind the Sony Style stores has always been to create a comfortable environment where consumers interact with and educate themselves about the latest technology," said Stan Glasgow, president and COO of Sony Electronics in the U.S. "At Sony Style Comcast Labs, trained staff show consumers how to unlock the full potential of their devices by demonstrating how Comcast's advanced delivery services integrate beautifully with Sony's hardware products and entertainment content."

"Innovation has been the cornerstone of all that we do at Comcast and this new interactive space is the perfect showcase for our current and future technology," said Tony Werner, Comcast's chief technology officer. "We're thrilled to have this unique space anchor our corporate headquarters as a clear demonstration of innovation. It's also a terrific, hands-on way for consumers to experience how all our products work together."

Sony Style Comcast Labs feature the best of Sony's electronics and the most innovative service offerings from Comcast. Sony Electronics offerings include BRAVIAÒ high definition LCD televisions, VAIO® PCs, a (alpha) DSLR and Cyber-shotÒ digital cameras, HandycamÒ camcorders, PSPÒ and PlayStationÒ 3 game consoles and emerging technologies like OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) TVs. Comcast will showcase all of its products and services from voice to video and Internet and demonstrate how they each work together seamlessly for the consumer.

Shoppers will have opportunities to make informed purchase decisions about what best fits their needs via personalized service and product demonstrations from in-store Sony Electronics and Comcast representatives.

The Sony Style Comcast Labs is located the heart of The Market at the base of the Comcast Center in Philadelphia at 17th and JFK Boulevard.

Did it work? It's part of a massive new campaign to make them not the most loathed company ever, along with superfast DOCSIS 3.0 that they're rolling out to customers post-haste.

What would it take for you to not hate Comcast anymore? More unscripted porn? Less internet throttling? Free HDMI cables? (They'll actually do that.) [AdAge via DSL Reports]

Editor's note: This is the most goddamn annoying commercial ever. – JC

The key is "paying" customers, but the other key is "free with purchase." That is, if you already pay for, say, CNN or HBO, then Bewkes says you'd be able to get it on your PC, and maybe on your phone, for no additional cost. If you are among the 15% of Americans who don't pay for TV, you'd presumably be able to grab a web-only option.

Bewkes presents this as a program he is cooking up with Comcast and his ex-ward, Time Warner Cable, but what this move does is turn content owners into content providers. The cable companies—and the wired and wireless phone data service providers—become dumb pipelines, whether they're signed on or not.

Boy do they love that. (Their industry expression is "over the top," meaning that content piggybacks on the connection rather than being part and parcel of the connection itself.) Saul at the Times, who was citing an Advertising Age article, makes a point of saying that Bewkes can only do this now that TWC isn't under his protection.

It's a good plan, if it means I can just buy a damn HBO subscription when the shows are good (as in, better than Eastbound and Down), have Nick and PBS on demand for the kid, and can do away with 90% of the cable crap that I have to wade through now. But just visualizing the convenience makes me realize the industry will never really let it happen. [NYT]

One of the first being, if cable companies are seriously considering a headfirst dive into the world currently being cultivated and pruned by the likes of Hulu, Netflix Watch Instantly streaming, and Amazon on demand, what of their dubious arguments about the Internet not having enough bandwidth and throttling user's usage? Complete bollocks, as we all thought from the beginning?

Another is new rates and fees. Or those infamous "bundles" that land in our mailboxes every month. What will they be? Will there be any? As the New York Times pointed out this weekend, the CATV companies have no real precedent to work with. Many consumers merely use the cable as a delivery method, preferring to get their content free, with ads, from services like Hulu. How much would you pay your cable company to see your favorite programming, anywhere or whenever you want? Would you even want to? Or, should streaming be included in your subscription price, like it's been done with Netflix users who watch videos on their PCs or Xbox 360s? Again, many questions.

A final question, raised by a commenter at the NYT, asks why some people have to pay three separate, marked up fees for TV, internet and phone, when what they're actually paying for is one thing: data traveling through the network. Will the new cable model, whatever it is, change all this?

What we do know is most, if not all, "cable guys" are talking about online programming. Why, just today we received a press release talking about the Verismo VuNow set top box, and how cable execs recently "foamed at the mouth" at the CableLabs Forum over its uncanny ability to stream cable content to a TV screen without a PC middleman. We also know that while the execs were in agreement on the hardware, everything else going on between the major players like Time Warner, Comcast and other programming companies regarding this issue is "tense," according to a report in the WSJ. A resounding "no shit" seems appropriate here.

Personally, I have 200+ cable channels, watch 12 of them, and catch a large portion of my shows after the broadcast date on DVR or online. And I'll soon be canceling a large part of my programming because I, like many people these days, cannot afford to just piss money away like that on dormant channels like we all did in the free-wheeling days of yesteryear.

Whether this kind of behavior starts to take hold with the average Joe Cable Watcher remains to be seen. So far the data says it hasn't, but give it time. That Hulu Super Bowl ad was clever, and some TVs have firmware upgrades these days. It's all but inevitable. [New York Times]

Jim MacConnell and Tom Masciulli had been installing a phone line at a neighboring house, when an old man ran onto the street screaming that his house was on fire and his wife was trapped inside. MacConell and Masciulli ran into the house and plunged through thick billows of black smoke to find her.

"There was so much black smoke and she had soot all over her face," MacConnell said, while watching firefighters battle the blaze. "If we had left, it's just my opinion, but if we weren't here she would've perished."

Today, Comcast Repairmen, we salute you. [Thanks Jon!]

According to an unconfirmed bit of information from the Consumerist, Comcast is giving their subscribers in Tuscon, AZ, a one-time $5 discount apiece in apologies for the pornography mixup during the Super Bowl. On one hand, that's a completely absurd amount of money to offer any family who had to explain what was going on to a scarred four-year-old girl. On the other, could Comcast make this right with any sort of compensation?

Well, there's only one way to find out. Offer us more, Comcast. Do something better. [Consumerist]

With under three minutes left and just after Larry Fitzgerald's heroic comeback(ish) touchdown for the Cardinals, the video feed abruptly switched to a scene from stablemate channel Club Jenna, treating viewers to the sight of seemingly omnipresent porn guy Evan Stone swinging his junk around like a maniac. This interlude lasted about 30 seconds.

Comcast told the Arizona Daily Star that engineers have been "working throughout the night" to figure out what happened, but haven't yet come up with an explanation. It could have been a simple case of human error, but given just how wrong it all went, I'd put my money on a disgruntled outgoing employee. Video of the event below, obviously NSFW. [AZStar, image from Getty. —Thanks, Jason and Nic!]

Video courtesy of ComcastSuperBowlPorn.com. WARNING: THIS IS ACTUAL PORN, WITH WIENER

Since they both vividly recall past PR debacles when it comes to monitoring or borking your internets—AT&T floated and quickly stopped talking about plans for internet-wide copyright dragnet, and Comcast, well, you know—they're not signing any formal agreements this time around.

But the gist is that the ISP would be a courier for the RIAA's notices, with graduated penalties, like suspension, all the way up to termination. Details left to be worked out, according to CNET's sources, are who would pay to send the takedown notices, and how the ISPs would make up the lost revenue from booting users.

Even though in one sense I'm not surprised AT&T and Comcast would be the first to play ball with the RIAA, on the other hand, it seems weird they'd go through the extra effort to be the RIAA's buttboy, given that they're already implementing aggressive traffic management, with monthly data caps and in Comcast's case, slowdowns for heavy users. Especially since the RIAA really has no major leverage over them in terms of content, like say movie studios or networks, who they depend on for content to sell their services to customers.

Hey, at least it's net neutral, right guys?

Update: Here's the official word from AT&T: "While not commenting directly on the RIAA announcement or speculation, we believe that consumer education is a key component to enabling customers to find and use legal methods to access the content they want, and we have also consistently said that automatic cutoff of our customers is not something we would do." [Cnet]

The golden rule—which we covered a bit here—to keep in mind is this: If you use more than 70 percent of your downstream or upstream bandwidth for more than 15 minutes, you'll be slowed down for at least 15 minutes, or until you're brought back down to using 50 percent of your bandwidth. The other, more esoteric way to bring on the sludge is actually a pair of conditions: If a certain CMTS port—cable modem termination system, the hub your cable modem, along with those of up to 15,000 (but probably fewer) runs to—is congested and if you've been targeted as the asshole why.

By slowed down, it means all of your packets are assigned "Best Effort" quality of service, a lower tier than Priority Best Effort. Which means this, according to Comcast:

If there is no congestion, packets from a user in a BE state should have little trouble getting on the bus when they arrive at the bus stop. If, on the other hand, there is congestion in a particular instance, the bus may become filled by packets in a PBE state before any BE packets can get on. In that situation, the BE packets would have to wait for the next bus that is not filled by PBE packets.

This all happens in a compressed time frame though—missing 50 buses would mean being delayed by about a tenth of a second, but it is possible to have your packets dropped in "extreme cases." (See? The bus metaphor was theirs.)

Don't forget your bandwidth counter either, guys. You wouldn't wanna zoom past your 250GB cap and get slowed down, would you? Enjoy your internets, and don't hog it all! [DSL Reports]

For instance, he leaked early warning to T-Mobile about a Do Not Call violation fine, and then helped get it reduced to just $100,000. The Verizon allegations seem more sinister, though also more vague, since it looks like the investigators caught wind of more severe favoritism, but couldn't quite find the evidence to prove it. Unfortunately, say the investigators, "due to the climate of fear that currently pervades the FCC," witnesses won't come forward.

Martin's spokesperson notes that the report "did not find or conclude that there were any violations of rules, laws or procedures." Regardless, one report finding you can't argue with is that Kevin Martin "picks on cable." [DSL Reports]