COMCAST CEO: CABLE IS “AN INDUSTRY PEOPLE LOVE TO HATE”

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts admitted Tuesday that his company is part of an “industry people always love to hate.” As reported by today’s (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times, Roberts, interviewed at the National Cable & Telecommunications convention in Los Angeles by former News Corp Presdent Peter Chernin, said that his father, Comcast founder Ralph Roberts, had once suggested that Comcast put bumper stickers on all its installation trucks that said, “I love cable.” He said that the plan was never implemented, in part because of worries that the trucks might be vandalized. However, he conceded, “We need to learn from the content industry how to market.” Roberts, whose company is in the process of acquiring a controlling interest in NBC, said that while it will invest in new programming for the network, he intends to adopt a hands-off approach to NBC News. “The single most awesome asset that comes from this deal is NBC News,” the Times quoted him as saying. He then added, “NBC News will help define Comcast.”