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

My rabbit ears don’t work anymore.

Yes, the federal government spent $2 billion and 13 years to finalize the nation’s transition from analog to crisper digital television transmission, and yes, much to the delight of Philebrity, the FCC said the Philadelphia region was responsible for the fourth most complaint calls to a hotline dedicted to the transition.

The Associated Press reports that Comcast’s new $1.5 billion debt issue received an investment grade rating on from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. The rating was “BBB+,” with a positive outlook for the possibility of further upgrade. It’ll be a two-part sale, according to Reuters. To the markets!

But, look, it ain’t Comcast’s fault. In some coverage areas, the cable giant launched a “rapid response team” to perform same-day installations for those who still needed a digital TV solution. ‘Course that didn’t help resolve the need for the FCC to send its own additional support here to help viewers who still hadn’t made the transition.

I mean, people lost 6ABC and WHYY, for goodness sake.

Maybe that’s why, when Comcast filed comments to the FCC for a proposed national broadband plan, part of their advice was to undergo a massive education program.

After the jump, porn and children’s shows get a buffer, a partnership with T-Mobile, video of Comcast playing nicely with children, among others.

In order of importance for your ease:

• The Consumerist reports that it will add “blocks of dummy channels” between family shows and adult pay-per-view programming to continue the illusion of innocent youth.
• Phandroid reports on rumors that T-Mobile may be working with Comcast to launch a 4G mobile network, beginning with not Philadelphia. The buzz is that it would launch in the D.C. and Baltimore metro area.
• Multichannel News reports that Comcast’s top content acquisition executive gave a message of “consistency” for on-demand video at the closing of the OnDemand Summit held in Center City Wednesday. That message was advice to help monetize the product.
• Corporate blog Comcast Voices shares news that employees participating in the city’s Big Brothers Big Sisters� program made a year-end visit to North Philadelphia’s Fairhill Elementary School, Comcast’s partner in the John Alchin Beyond School Walls program, for a party with their “littles.”

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

Well, the mid-February deadline was stalled to give consumers a better chance to prepare for the catastrophic chance at losing TV, but that doesn’t mean no one is losing out already.

Although the government delayed the mandatory shutdown of analog TV signals by four months to give people with older TVs more time to prepare, that’s small comfort to Diaz and other people who live in cities where some broadcasters are switching to all-digital broadcasts Tuesday, as they had originally planned.

Because it is costly to keep broadcasting analog signals, nearly 500 stations said they would make the transition Tuesday rather than June 12. The Federal Communications Commission told 123 stations they might have to reconsider, so no city loses all its analog network broadcasts, and many stations have agreed. But still there will be an odd patchwork of programming for millions of Americans who rely on analog TV signals. [Source]

And it’s happening in our ‘hood – sorta. None in Philly or our ‘burbs, but other places where folks might where Phillies hats are affected. The following:

• Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York: WIFT-TV (PBS), WLYH-TV (CW)
• Johnstown-Altoona-State College: WATM-TV (ABC), WWCP-TV (Fox)
• Pittsburgh: WPGH-TV (Fox), WPMY (MyN), WQEX
• Wilkes-Barre-Scranton: WNEP-TV (ABC), WVIA-TV (PBS), WYOU (CBS), WBRE-TV (NBC), WQMY (MyN) [Source]