Comcast CEO on Fancast and Net NeutralityComcast CEO on Fancast and Net Neutrality

Fritz Nelson, Vice President, Editorial Director information Business Technology Network

October 21, 2009

2 Min Read

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts got the Web 2.0 Summit started this week talking about everything from its beta Fancast service to net neutrality and bandwidth capping to social networking. The only thing he couldn't talk about was its rumored work on acquiring NBC, but he did discuss the company's broader push into the content business.You can watch a clip of Roberts demonstrating Comcast's Fancast online video network below. This is a Hulu-like experience, but it's only for Comcast customers. However, if you happen to be one there are plenty of interesting benefits, including the fact that you can bring your service entitlements with you to the web. And unlike Hulu, you get entire catalogs of content, not just the past few episodes. Comcast is still working to build up its library, but it has agreements with 20 plus content providers. Not a bad start.

Clarification: Fancast is available for anyone. The product demonstrated at Web 2.0 Summit was On Demand Online, which offers Comcast customers their subscription content (including premium services) online.

Roberts also talked about the controversial topic of net neutrality, saying that he welcomes the discussion. You can watch what he had to say in this video below.

Finally, Comcast was an early pioneer in using services like Twitter to follow what its customers were saying, and even to respond to those customers. It became an example for other corporations in how to get more out of social networking. The video below includes some of Roberts' thoughts on the topic.

Fritz Nelson is an Executive Editor at information and the Executive Producer of TechWebTV. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing.

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