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

Seventeen more cable TV networks have agreed to put their content on Comcast’s TV Everywhere, the proposed online video service that would be offered to subscribers only. That brings the total to 23, according to the Associated Press.

Though some public discourse has remained skeptical of the authentication model, Comcast has continued to move forward with its unprecedented experiment of paid content on the Web.

HBO is in that number of participants. The cable channel recently announced it will put at least 750 hours of its programming on the service scheduled to be rolled out for 5,000 trial subscribers in coming weeks, as reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal. That’s nearly as high profile as the thunder heard after CBS announced it was following suit, as reported by MediaMemo, which followed Time Warner becoming the first big fish in the pond with Comcast. Others, like Starz, added their own buzz.

Details on the security of the system aren’t yet clear, but it’s unlikely 23 networks, including major players like Time Warner, CBS and HBO would join so quickly if something wasn’t clear.

After the jump, more social media praise, a Comcast technician turns to crime and six other stories for the faithful.

In order of importance for your ease:

• TUAW reviews Comcast’s new iPhone and iPod touch mobile application, which syncs the company’s e-mail and voice mail and shows onDemand movie trailes and more.
• The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports on what will be the latest iteration of Comcast’s advertising campaign featuring Shaq and Ben Stein. It’s a Starsky and Hutch spoof that you can expect to see after Aug. 3.
• Keystone Edge runs something of a recap of the ongoing battle between Verizon and Comcast in the Philadelphia region. We’ll try to forgive the Rocky lede.
• Business Week shares some business Twitter tips from Comcast ahead of another New York Times story praising the telecommunications company’s social media public relations campaign.
• Multichannel News reports that a Comcast technician in Oregon allegdly robbed a check-cashing store of $3,000, jacked a female employee with a crowbar and bailed. [Insert your punchline in the comment field below]. H/T Philly Tech News.
• MediaWeek reports that Comcast is tossing up a host of Spanish–language content in North Carolina. Cambie el programa.
• Corporate blog Comcast Voices is running big with the company’s recently introduced partnership with One Economy on the Comcast Digital Connectors program, a technology literacy program for underprivileged children. Read the press release for more, or peep the below video introduction.

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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.

We’re not quite done with this topic yet.

For two consecutive weeks, the biggest Comcast story has remained the same — it’s partnership with Time Warner to launch an online TV video streaming service that requires cable subscription authentication.

Major challenges remain in designing that authentication system, reports the Los Angeles Times. While broadcast networks like NBC have been quick to put their content online for free, cable providers, like Comcast, are eager to create a source of revenue online.

The L.A. Times also reports that the initiative, dubbed TV Everywhere, is proposed to include regular commercials, like broadcast TV, despite the trend online for fewer, shorter video advertisements. (Watch the CEOs of Comcast and Time Warner speak on the proposal after the jump.)

If you’re thinking of the online TV limit, think 500 hours, as Multichannel News reports. Web video watched through TV Everywhere will count toward the overall 250-gigabyte per month usage limit, which Comcast instituted last fall.

“According to my calculations, 250 Gbytes is enough for some 496 hours of high-quality video streaming, or the equivalent of 20 days of around-the-clock online-video watching,” wrote Todd Spangler.

While some executives have brushed the concern aside, the question of antitrust implications for the Comcast and Time Warner Internet-video collusion is real, Gigaom reports.

After the jump, keeping baseball from a 94-year-old fan, Comcast and Time Warner heads speak, and four other Comcast stories for the faithful.

In order of importance for your ease:

• Inquirer columnist Danny Rubin finds and reports on 94-year-old Jessie Foyle, a Phillies fan to the extreme who struggles to listen to the baseball team’s games on a transistor radio because her retirement home has DirecTV. Comcast owns rights to most of the Phillies games and, Rubin suggests, they ain’t sharing.
• Comcast became the first major cable TV company to release wireless broadband beyond of Wi-Fi hotspots when it launched the service in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday. Services in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and others are planned to follow by the end of 2009. This follows the company’s November 2008 investment in Clearwire.
• The Inqy’s Bob Fernandez profiles the work of Comcast Interactive Media, the company’s 800-employee Internet division. It includes ping pong and the department’s relationship to its cable TV operations.
• TV Squad suggests that a Comcast advertisement attacking Verizon’s FiOS TV has been changed.
• A press release announcing that Comcast is now the third largest residential phone services provider.
• Comcast Voices has a video interview with Brian Roberts and Jeff Bewkes, CEOs of Comcast and Time Warner respectively, about their company’s partnership on TV Everywhere, as announced last week.

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.

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.

Despite poor economic conditions, Center City-based Comcast reported a 5.4 percent increase in net income in the first quarter of 2009 to $778 million, or 27 cents per share, according to financial results released today.

Cable network revenue has been well-off this quarter. Time Warner, Walt Disney and Viacom all reported stronger than expected quarterly profit, Reuters reported yesterday. Comcast beat analyst expectations by 4 cents per share.

Still, Comcast declined to provide a forecast for the upcoming year; Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis cautioned that the company is “conservative” about the use of its cash as the year progresses.

Comcast now boasts 46.1 million customers of its video, high-speed Internet and voice customers, but overall, it struggled to maintain growth.

The company lost 78,000 video customers and its high-speed Internet subscription rate was down 33 percent from last year’s quarter.

Comcast’s biggest drop was in revenue generating units, which reflect customers subscribed to any one of its broad service offerings. It added 837,000 units this quarter, a 54 percent decline from 1,821,000 units added in last year’s first quarter.

Shares are trading at 15.94, up $0.70 since NASDAQ closed yesterday.

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.