Eagles To Play Thanksgiving (Will You See It?)

Well, look at this! The Eagles will play on Thanksgiving night this year at home against the Arizona Cardinals. In addition to their division games and the four games against the rotating AFC opponent (this year, the North, where they’ll play the Steelers, Ravens, Bengals and Browns), the Eagles will also play the 49ers, Falcons, Seahawks, Rams and Bears.

But the Thanksgiving game might be the most interesting, and just because it’s on, well, Thanksgiving. The NFL and Comcast are still having a tug of war over what “tier” the NFL Network should be on, part of the most boring controversy in world history. (I just love it when multi-million dollar corporations fight.) Now, Comcast’s home market of Philadelphia has a high-profile game that will be airing on NFL Network! What better way to shame them (or something) into doing their bidding. That crafty NFL!

Comcast DVR Box Continues To Annoy

If you’re, uhm, fortunate enough to have a DVR box from Comcast, you’ve probably experienced some problems with it. If you’ve had one for a while like me, you’re actually happy with it right now; previous boxes of mine used to die every few weeks, and the old firmware barely worked. Box #7 has worked fairly well so far, but I still am kind of in constant worry it will break again.

It’s also slow and stalls and requires a power cycle every other week or so. And there’s no group delete and there are these annoying “messages” that pop up and, okay, maybe I don’t like the DVR all that much. I suppose the honeymoon over the fixes Comcast did make is over.

Chris Albrecht wrote about another problem: Some networks don’t send the data for ‘new’ or ‘repeat’ episodes, so the DVR treats everything as new. Comcast says it’s fixed; Albrecht says it’s not for him. (Not fixed for me, either!) He has also written about key queuing, where the Comcast DVR stalls and then inputs all the button presses one after another.

All of this remains unfixed. Meanwhile, you can buy Slowskys merchandise. (Note to Brian Roberts: If I ever make it big, I’m more than happy to sell out and make commercials for you.)

Dear Comcast, Why is My DVR So Dumb? [NewTeeVee]

Comcast, Senator Team Up To Screw You

Hey, guess, what, fellas? Will Bunch has quite the scoop! Turns out Arlen Specter doesn’t really care about you, or the Eagles, at all! Yes, apparently he only cares about people who give him money, making him a politician.

As you may have read earlier, Specter wants to investigate the NFL for Spygate because he just loves fair sports so much and there hasn’t been much else going on in Washington. Ha ha, that’s just what ol’ Arlen said, though, and I hope you knew it wasn’t true since a politician said it.

Bunch writes that two of Specter’s biggest donors are Comcast and lobbying firm Blank Rome, who lobbies for Comcast. Comcast, as you know, is in a war with the NFL over the NFL Network. (Isn’t it cute when multi-million dollar corporations fight?) This is probably why Arlen Specter is angry about the NFL’s exclusive deal with DirecTV, yet silent on Comcast SportsNet’s refusal to sell the channel to satellite systems.

Basically, all it means is a politician is screwing you over. But you already knew that.

Arlen’s tangled Comcastic mess: It’s worse than you think [Attytood]

Imp’t Historical Site To Be Discussed

Comcast-Spectacor will unveil preliminary plans for development of the South Philadelphia sports complex — including issues regarding the demolition of the Spectrum — today at a news conference. The news conference by Comcast will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet, which you can only get in the city by subscribing to Comcast cable. The media will then write about Comcast afterward.

Early last week, the Delco Times broke the story of the Spectrum’s possible demolition, leading locals to reminisce about their favorite Spectrum moment. Some of we yokels probably even would say “Wing Bowl” when asked their favorite Spectrum event. Indeed, the Spectrum has been home to many events, none greater than Bill “El Wingador” Simmons’ first Bowl victory in 1999.

The plans involve the Baltimore-based Cordish Co, which has opened several “Live!” entertainment chains in the U.S. and wants to open its newest branch down in South Philly. I think the conference is at 2 p.m., but Peter Lukko isn’t going to say anything concrete, so whatevs.

Out: Spectrum. In: Chain Neighborhood.

Somehow I haven’t written about the possible demolition of the Spectrum so far, so let’s delve in. On Sunday, the Delco Times broke the story¹: The Spectrum might be demolished to make way for an entertainment complex. (Which is what is already there, but you get the point.)

The Daily News the next day added a few more details about the proposed complex. Cordish Co. has given several proposals to Comcast, which owns the Spectrum, at least one of which would demolish the arena and put in condos, a movie theater, a music venue, etc.

Basically, what they want to build is a chain:

The Cordish Co. describes itself on its Web site as one of the leading real-estate-development companies and most successful entertainment-operating businesses in the world. Recent projects, similar in scope to what is supposedly being proposed for Philadelphia, include “Power Plant Live!” in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Area, “Fourth Street Live” in Louisville Ky., and “Daytona Live!” outside Daytona Motor Speedway in Daytona, Fla.

Philly Live!, you will be relieved to learn, will have the exclamation point, which gives a neighborhood extra edginess.

¹ The story is gone from the link I saved, plus the Times has that awful Journal-Register website template with ridiculously long permalinks and zero readability.

Shareholder: It’s A Comcastrophe!

Barron’s yesterday reported a major shareholder of Comcast wants Brian Roberts fired. A Jan. 14 letter from Chieftan Capital to Comcast called the Roberts’ reign of terror a “Comcastrophe” (cute) and said he should be axed. Although the Roberts family only owns 1 percent of Comcast’s shares, it owns “dual-class shares” which gives ‘em control of the company. Comcast sez it’s no big deal and it’s met with Chieftan Capital and will smooth everything over in time. Comcastrophe!

Buy This Car, Get Better Parking

The Wachovia Center has signed a deal with Lexus in order to give Lexus drivers reserved parking at the Wacko Center.

“Lexus continues to be a great advertising partner of ours,” Comcast-Spectacor President Peter Luukko said in a press release. “As we continue to look for new and exciting opportunities for our fans and our sponsors, Lexus remains a terrific partner.

“As a result of this new arrangement, we’re able to offer our customers who drive Lexus cars an opportunity to park in a specially designated space with other Lexus owners.”

Whoo! You get to park with other Lexus owners! I understand the need for reserved parking at the Flyers, but the Sixers? You can probably pull up five minutes before gametime and get the best parking spot in the house.

Reduced Outlook For Comcast Sends Shares South

Hey, so speaking of some good old shameful joy, it looks like shares of Comcast are headed south. This makes me feel sort of conflicted; after all, Comcast hasn’t really done much to me personally other than charge too much for cable. On the other hand, the company charges too much for cable. What’s not to hate?

The cable giant said it now only expects to add 6 million new customers this year, not 6.5 million. Apparently, this means there won’t be a Christmas or something and so everybody’s selling! Now everybody’s selling! Buy buy buy!

Comcast also has to improve its customer service, which stock traders apparently just found out sucks today.

Comcast shares plummet on reduced outlook [MarketWatch]
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) [Yahoo! Finance]

Anonymous Comcast Employee Likes Job

Since every crackpot can now have a blog and be a “self-publisher,” there are plenty of people who spend their time obsessively chronicling the mundane details of a corporation or city (see: Philadelphia Will Do). Comcast is a popular target nowadays — aw, it’s the little local media company that could grow into a giant corporation — and has its own followers, which is cool and all.

Philly, Inc., though, points us to comcastrocks dot blogspot dot come, which is apparently a random Internet employee blogging in the name of the company. Since the company’s forayed into the field of astroturfing didn’t go so well last time, is this another attempt at gaining some Internet credibilkity? (Whatever that means.) The scoop: The writer of ComcastMustDie.com says it’s real.

And, the highlight of the so far three posts:

Life is so short and we have to realize that there are more important things for all of us to be working on. Comcast is a corporation that is bigger and more powerful than most of us. So why try to take it down and or bash there employees. There are other options we may not like then but they do exist.And for all of the employees that hate your job:QUIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She makes a good point: Life is more important than hating Comcast, though not by much.

comcast rocks dot blogspot dot com

Comcast Wiretap Rates Only Slightly More Expensive Than Basic Cable

We all know the government spies on us. They probably know when you’ve commented on this very blog, even though the political discourse here never really raises above “Give me those photos of George Bush in a bikini!” Well, apparently the government spies on us so much, Comcast has a special rate for wiretapping!

For the low, low price of $1,000, Comcast will let the government put a wiretap on your phone and perhaps the other parts of the “triple play” package. A blog called Secrecy News obtained a copy of Comcast’s manual, which does make it seem like the cable behemoth does comply with the law.

With your $1,000 fee, you get the first month of “intercept service” for free! No, really, you do. That sounds like a joke but the handbook actually says that. It’s $750 for each additional month of spying, so basically it actually only costs $250 to get the wiretap. Oh, and an FBI agent has to hand-deliver the National Security Letters to Comcast HQ in Philadelphia, so the black vans with guys in suits really are following you around town.

Comcast Cable Law Enforcement Handbook [Secrecy News]
Implementing Domestic Intelligence Surveillance [Secrecy News]