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.

DEFINITE READS

• The Washington Post reports on Comcast’s bolstered presence in D.C. circles, ahead of regulatory oversight of its deal for NBC.
• The New York Times reports that Democrats in particular have been critical of the NBC deal. Among them, the Washington Post reports that former NBC star and current Senator Al Franken said NBC can’t be trusted. But the Post also reports that Pittsburgh’s mayor, among other local leaders, encouraged their congressional members to support the deal.

Below, why some say the Comcast-NBC deal would ruin Web video, Brian Roberts makes a promise about layoffs and More.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The Business Insider reports that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts pledged that there will be “no massive layoffs” if he secured majority ownership of NBC. Read Roberts’s prepared testimony here. In questioning, the Business Insider also reports, Comcast and NBC executives refused to promise whether cable fees would go up or not if the deal went through.
• The Business Insider also reports that during the hearings the deal was criticized for likely limiting innovation on the Web around video.

GIVE A GLANCE

• The Boston Globe reports that Comcast’s recently debuted xfinity is another battleground with Verizon.
• Philly Tech News rounds up other news surrounding the xfinity brand launch.

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

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

In Comcast news big enough to get Philebrity’s Joey Sweeney to bite, Comcast has reached a partnership with Time Warner to put content from their Turner Broadcasting online, where Comcast-subscribers can watch, as the Business Journal reported yesterday.

The agreement also included a set of principles for future online distribution of TV shows on a platform they call TV Everywhere, which require viewer authentication. Read those guiding principles here.

In the announcement, Comcast said it will begin testing next month this On Demand Online with 5,000 subscribers. The initial Turner programmaing will include content from TBS and TNT. No word on if you’ll be able to get those old reruns of Walker Texas Ranger.

This model is seen as a direct threat to advertising-supported Web TV streaming sites like Hulu, as Wired reported. Paid Content reports that Comcast got a taste for that model from ESPN360 in its partnership with Disney.

The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano, who offered the news a brief, recently reported on timid speculation about a Comcast merger with Time Warner.

After the jump, someone else has an interview with Brian Roberts, Verizon gets faster, video of Comcast Idol participants, and four other Comcast stories for the faithful.

In order of importance for your ease:

• The Boston Globe has a Q&A with Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts, in which he says, “Do I hear of some mistakes? Yes.” Feel free to finish that with a punchline in the comments.
• Bobbie Fernandez over at the Inquirer reports that DirecTV has relatively quietly grown its list of subscribers to 18 million, nearing the Comcast behemoth. Add them to Verizon and apparently Hulu as combatants.
• Multichannel News reports that in at least 10 markets, including Philadelphia, Baltimore and D.C., Comcast will host commercials advertising FiOS TV, the golden product of rival Verizon.
• In other Verizon news, the Business Journal’s Peter Key says Verizon has announced opening its fastest digital subscriber service to nearly a quarter million more Pennsylvanians.
• And because Scott McNulty at the Comcast Voices corporate blog never fails to post something I feel compelled to share, the telecommunications giant hosted a Comcast Idol competition for its employees and, yes, I swear, all five finalists actually produced creative and entertaining songs about their company. Unsurprisingly, the boys from San Fran who played it nearest to the Comcast Dream Big theme won, but, below, watch my favorite, “I Love Comcast,” a beauty from a Michigan crew that gives a nod to our friend and social media whore Asher Roth.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said two big things this week.

You’re gonna pay for online viewing of TV content and, yeah, this economy still sucks.

Roberts joined a growing group of cable company executives who are calling for a China Wall around online-streaming cable content, as Media Post News reported. They’re calling it an “era of authentication,” in which you won’t be able to pop in to watch episodes of your favorite gardening shows unless you prove you’re paying customer of HGTV. Time Warner and other top chiefs are mostly seen as on board — only technology and implementation stand in the way. The same obstacles for my jet pack.

Roberts also let us in on a little secret. The decline in consumer spending is still rattling Comcast here in the second quarter, as MarketWatch reported. Others have pointed to other reasons for the struggles, but those problems don’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon. Folks aren’t necessarily ditching their service any quicker, Roberts says, it’s just that no one else is calling up.

As if that wasn’t enough buzz, Roberts got some residual ink about the Time Warner deal from the Philly swoop by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who said he and Roberts are gal pals.

After the jump, what if Comcast bought TimeWarner, at least somebody cares about hockey and five other Comcast stories the truly faithful would read.

Other stories in order of importance for your ease:

• The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano reports speculation about a blockbuster deal in which Comcast could purchase a recently trimmed Time Warner. A lot of questions remain, and, yes, Distefano let the Wall Street Journal spin the yarn.
• The Business Journal reports on an agreement between Comcast and the NHL Network, which would add the hockey channel to Comcast’s Digital Classic service tier before the sport’s next season. If you need to know when that begins, ask a Canadian … or Sean Blanda. This after Comcast reached its deal with the NFL Network following a contentious battle.
• As tweeted:
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• The Silicon Valley Insider gives round two of why Comcast should be worrying about Hulu. Via PhillyTechNews.
• Cable Digital News reports that the Colorado-based “asset delivery” systems specialist Radiance Technologies, which Comcast Media Center bought for $5 million in late 2008, is moving to a new digital ad delivery platform. Someone wants a return on their investment.
• Slash Gear gives word to rumors of Comcast moving their Internet service up to 100Mbps. Just details.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.

Hating on CEO pay has, of course, been the thing to do lately, but Roberts’ 2008 salary was below his 2006 take. Roberts agreed to several concessions including axing his “golden coffin” clause that pays his heirs five years of his base pay plus a bonus should he pass away. Roberts also agreed to freeze his pay until 2010.

Still, Comcast cut 3,300 jobs last year while Roberts was making an eight figure salary.

Roberts’ pay package makes him the third highest paid in the entertainment/media sector behind Disney’s Bob Iger (paid $51.1 million) and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch ($30.1 million).

While Comcast’s stock fell 7.6 percent in 2008, the company outperformed the NASDAQ index, which fell 44 percent.

Brian Roberts (far left) sits on a panel about new media at The Cable Show.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts had the honor of being a panelist at the cable industry trade show in Washington. All of the cable big wigs are slated to attend the event hosted by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

According to reports, Roberts used his time to persuade his colleagues that the Internet is not the enemy and is another avenue for monitization. The cable industry has been abuzz over customers canceling pricey cable packages in favor of getting media via broadband Internet connections. The practice, known as “cord-cutting” in cable-company-speak, has had an impact on cable companies. Many companies are also suffering because of cost-cutting consumers not renewing service to save money, and the Center-City based Comcast is no exception. As covered previously in Technically Philly, the company lost 233,000 cable subscribers last quarter.

Of the five member panel, Roberts was the most supportive of placing video online.The Comcast CEO stated bluntly that the customer should only pay for cable once and receive it across all mediums. Comcast’s OnDemand strategy employs this tactic: subscribers to premium channels, such as HBO, automatically receive the channel’s content on demand for no additional cost.

Comcast is planning an “OnDemand Online” service that would create a walled garden available only to subscribers. Currently, Comcast offers TV episodes for free at Fancast.

“It’s going to be hard but we’re in an industry that can afford to widen the moat by continuing to invest,” he said, quoted by tvweek.com.

Suddenlink Chairman and CEO Jerry Kent was leery with Roberts’ philosophy of giving all mediums with a single subscription. Kent didn’t want the cable industry to make the same mistake as the newspaper industry and give their content away online for free however he added that the cable industry could not keep ignoring the Web. Roberts noted that most broadcast stations always have been free, and he could not understand why they didn’t reach out to every medium available.

(Sources: paidcontent.org, Wall Street Journal | Disclaimer: I have applied to positions at Comcast Interactive Media)