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

Get your business plan ready.

In a bruised economy that has made kingmakers of those with spare cash, Sam Schwartz, who oversees mergers and acquisitions for Comcast’s digital group, told Peter Kafka of Media Memo that he’s shopping.

“I’m ready for pitches,” he said, in the interested video interview, which you can see below.

While previous purchases, like Fandango and Daily Candy, may have had technology motivations, Schwartz may be eying sites with large unique traffic in general. So what’s your idea?

The Media Memo video interview, the fallout from Comcast’s agreement with the NFL Network, why Comcast is threatening to cancel someone’s cable over a bill for $0 and four other Comcast stories you need to know to ace the test, after the jump.

Below watch Media Memo’s interview with Sam Schwartz:

Other stories in order of importance for your ease:

• Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford lends a critical eye to the recent kiss-and-make-up by Comcast and the NFL Network, going so far as to say Comcast won out on the deal — more than, he says, the consumer. A Lancaster newspaper columnist gives his take on why he has very different feelings on the two CEOs who brokered the deal. Multichannel News reports that the deal between Comcast and the NFL Network may lead to more cable deals for the football league.
• A Reuters distributed columnist thinks the whole tangle of FCC involvement in cable carrier disputes is a “mess.” Speaking of which, the Boston Globe reports that a U.S. Court of Appeals backed up a 2007 FCC limiting of exclusive deals doled out by Comcast and other cable TV service providers.
• Consumerist reports on the Baltimore couple that was threatened by Comcast to pay $0.00 or risk a cable shutoff. The comments are half the fun, as readers try to give the best response to the Comcast request.
• Delaware Online reports that a survey shows a recent surge in Comcast’s U.S. customer-satisfaction ratings — which the Comcast Roundup mentioned last week — can be attributed to its use of social media, notably Twitter. Yeah, yeah, another Twitter story.
• The University of Delaware announces the university has scored a local coverage channel deal with Comcast. It’s gonna go viral.
• A Broadband forum is chatting about the million customers cable companies are losing per anum, not to the Internet but to satellite providers.

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 the Comcast Roundup.

Comcast settled two hotly contested fights with major content creators last week.

Comcast and the NFL Network settled their differences and inked a nine-year deal that will broadcast the football channel to more than two-thirds of Comcast subscribers, the New York Times reports.

The Media Memo at All Things Digital also reports that after Comcast’s squabble with Disney over Mickey’s joining Hulu last month, the two came together to announce that Disney-owned ESPN will offer its streaming video service to 17 million Comcast broadband subscribers.

Comcast’s growing lobbying budget, new advertising campaign and three other Comcast stories you need to read, after the jump.

Organized by importance for your ease:

• The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports that, while still among the bottom of cable companies, Comcast saw its ranking in the American Customer Satisfaction Index leap forward, attributed to its social media outreach. Anyone think that can keep going?
• Fernandez also reports that the slowing economy doesn’t mean that Comcast has any plans of selling its majority stake in the Sixers and Flyers.
• For his second encore (gosh their staff is small now) Fernandez reports that our telecommunications giant spent $12.5 million on lobbying last year, including famed North Philadelphia Pastor William Gray III.
• The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano reports that an Obama administration more likely to push antitrust litigation could threaten cable giants like Comcast.
• Ad Week discusses Comcast’s new advertising campaign featuring Shaquille O’Neal as ‘the best’ and Ben Stein as ‘the smartest,’ qualities the company says represent its subscriber offerings. Check one of the spots out below.

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

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours.

• The Business Insider reports that as online video streaming develops, companies like NetFlix ought to pay less attention to user generated services like YouTube and more attention to diverse, robust cable and telecommunications giants like, oh, say Comcast. ‘The coming war,’ they call it, and not just to goad you into reading their story, although that worked on us.

• Gawker reports that since tech blog Boing Boing has taken sponsorship dollars from Comcast, they’ve pulled back from their once critical coverage. That ain’t gonna be good for BB’s authenticity.
• Broadcasting Cable reports that a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals asked some big questions of Comcast and the FCC in their contentious battle over data caps Comcast imposed in December 2007. This jawn might not be finished before July, BC reported, so we’ll go easy on the coverage.
• Gigaom writes on Comcast beefing up the content on its online FanCast service, where you can watch online video, once you authenticate your cable subscription. There’s a 250 GB cap of broadband service, and, as we just told you, people think caps are all icky.
• Multichannel News reports that the city of Springfield, Mass. is suing Comcast, alleging the cable operator ignored its franchise terms by passing some costs on to subscribers. Springfield, I suspected you least of all.
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a fine Point-Counterpoint from Comcast Vice President David Cohen and NFL Network CEO Steve Bornstein on their fight about how many Comcast subscribers get the football channel. Now that is citizen journalism right there — even if they are both from wire services. Ah.
• Wired reports on Comcast doubled speeds for many San Francisco and Silicon Valley broadband subscribers and adding a top tier of more than 50 mbps downstream. That connection speed, they say, could download a high definition move in less than 20 minutes, but really, think of how much fun you could have with Comcast Town!
• Reuters reports that Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Comcast’s long-term senior unsecured debt ratings last week and said balance sheet measures should bolster the cable company’s credit metrics in 2009. In English that means ’cause Comcast has continued to lessen its debt obligations — even if revenue growth will likely slow — and bring in more subscriptions, Moody’s is a bit more bullish on them, putting Comcast in their eighth-highest investment grade.

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

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

It isn’t the region’s largest employer, nor is it even the biggest or most profitable. It just makes a lot more noise. While we cover some of it and hope to do more, a lot of that noise isn’t worth much more than a sentence or two. But much of it is worth following, and we bet many of you readers would like to, so we’re going to sort everything you need to know.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours (we don’t make promises we can’t keep, except to our illegitimate children).

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Center City, has garnered another distinction — the tallest LEED-certified building in the country.

Read more on the company’s continued battles with Verizon, NFL Network, how Comcast might be defending your right to not pay more for heavy Internet use and more.

• The New York Times reports that Time Warner Cable backed down from a plan to impose new fees on heavy users of its Internet service but that the debate over the price of Internet use isn’t done. But not everyone buys the need to charge more for heavier Internet users. “All of our economics are based on engineering for the peak hour,” said Tony Werner, the chief technical officer of Comcast. “Just because someone consumes more data doesn’t mean they drive more cost.”
• tweeted:
  to Comcast Cares day this Saturday. Oooh, free tour.
• The Courier Post reports that the telecommunications war between Comcast and Verizon is growing. Where are the hottest battlegrounds outside Philly? Dirty Jersey!
• The Inquirer reports that 13 regional companies are on this year’s Fortune 500 including, yup, the “ever-ballooning telecommunications giant,” Comcast.
• PC World reports that Comcast TV is coming to your laptop — for paid subscribers, of course.
• Corporate blog Comcast Cares featured an interview by Scott “BlankBaby” McNulty with Comcast founder Ralph Roberts.
• “The” USA Today reports that some say this dispute between Comcast and the NFL Network that we reported on won’t be resolved for “months.”
• A press release on Verizon’s expansion of its remote DVR management service for FiOS TV customers.

We’d like to share the best Comcast comment — seen anywhere online — of the week, so if you see one, tweet us @technicallyphl or contact us.

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

4/17/09 11:09 a.m. tweeted:

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun.

Because that’s what we do best.

• USA Today reports that a “seemingly endless stream” of new domain extensions, like .philly, could join traditional fare like .com and .org next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Orwellian-named Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web’s address system.

Below see more stories you need to be sure you saw, including our most trafficked of the week.

• The Associated Press reports that Comcast and DirecTV will pay $3.2 million in FTC fines to settle claims they solicited people who had requested not to be contacted.
• Comcast has said it will return $15,000 given to its political-action committee from Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, who is part of a Pennsylvania ban on political donations from casino investors.
• The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano reports on an Obama administration plan to develop a high-speed train line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It details how, Distefano writes, but “it doesn’t explain why anyone would want to.”
• PC World reports that this Conficker worm every cable-news show is talking about is supposed to make money, not cause harm — you know, like Bear Sterns – but more than 10 percent of home PCs remain unprotected.
  
• The Franklin Institute Learning Center is opening its newest traveling exhibition on Star Trek, making its East Coast debut on Saturday May 16.

Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Shop Talk: Keith McGinnis of Review Publishing on the Philadelphia Weekly redesign

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything if you spent the week mourning the death of Harry the K, with Friday Tech Links. See others here.

Everyone’s favorite hometown cable psuedo-monopoly is in court this week over allegations it is favoring its own content over third-party channels.

The National Football League and Comcast have been fighting over the cable giant’s handling of the NFL Network in FCC court. Since its launch, Comcast has excluded the NFL Network from its primary channel group forcing customers to pay an extra eight dollars for an additional programming package.

The NFL is accusing Comcast of favoring its own sports channels, such as The Golf Channel and Versus, while making it difficult for the competition to be carried. The network has been relegated to MTV’s 1986 tactics begging customers to call Comcast and demand the NFL network but the result will affect the strange balancing act that Comcast does between content producer and content provider.

The NFL Network is mostly known for carrying a handful of live football games throughout the year, broadcasting classic games and covering the NFL draft. Unless you are a die-hard football nut, the result of this case will go mostly unnoticed as the Eagles are not currently scheduled for any NFL Network games.

Comcast has countered, accusing the NFL of demanding an unrealistic per-subscriber fee of 70 cents and will stop carrying the network at all when their contract expires at the end of this month. Comcast is also being taken to court over a similiar dispute with WealthTV.

via Philly.com and the Wall Street Journal