August 4-10, 2005

loose canon

PARODY OF CARING: Cable TV activists satirize Comcast's treatment of the communities they serve. Comcast could show it cares by investing in local content creators.

The Case for Phillywood

Comcast craves content, and Philadelphia has a burgeoning creative class. It's time they met.

by Bruce Schimmel

It's difficult to think of Comcast's Brian and Ralph Roberts as modern robber barons after plowing through a long list of their charitable contributions. There are too many of my good friends on the receiving end of their charity: Pig Iron Theater, Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Susan Hess, Melanie Stewart and the Fringe Festival. It's hard to hate people who help pay the rent — even if they happen to be picking your pocket.

Corporate charity, like blood money, can put a soft focus on hard facts. So when earlier this year a Philadelphia magazine columnist had the temerity to tear down Brian Roberts, calling him an "Evil Emperor," no less a personage than Sister Mary Scullion, of Project H.O.M.E., rose to his defense. Sister Mary called Comcast and Roberts "perfect examples of what this city needs." (The cynical might ask how much it cost to inspire such a benediction: well over $2 million.)

Still, Comcast might be, as Sister Scullion says, a perfect example of what Philadelphia needs — but not because of their charity. Charity alone is not going to quell the angry tide that is rising against the company. Charity, by itself, won't ease the pain of a $20 billion corporation riding roughshod over its customers and workers. But meaningful investment in the communities that Comcast serves could help the company become a far better corporate citizen — while also fattening its bottom line.

As businesspeople, the Roberts understand that charitable donations are at best an inefficient means of creating wealth in communities. In contrast, community investment — like teaching people to fish — is a gift that keeps on giving.

Until now, Roberts has been very charitable to the city's creative class. But it's past time that they go beyond charity, to make some serious investments in Philadelphia's growing wealth of creative talent. Comcast needs creative people, and creative people need exactly what Comcast has: access to the nation's top 20 urban markets.

At the moment, Comcast is the fat and happy king of cable, with a monopoly on the thickest data pipes going into the homes of more than 21 million cable subscribers. Not only is it the largest cable operator in the country, it is also the largest broadband provider, with some 22 percent of the market.

But competitors are closing in. Murdoch's satellites, local phone companies, municipal WiFi and even electric companies are rushing to provide high-speed Internet access. In time, Comcast's fat pipes, which currently provide about 95 percent of its revenue, will not continue to be the company's cash cow. The actual programming that they push down those pipes will count for much more.

Content will eventually sit on equal terms with King Cable, if not outright usurp him. Even today, the cost of acquiring programs is the single biggest expense on Comcast's bottom line. Increasingly, the company must compete in the rough-and-tumble world of content production — video, games, music, software services, entertainment and sports.

So Comcast is buying content furiously, investing in the E! Entertainment Network, the Style Network, the Golf Channel, the Outdoor Life Network and foreign language channels. For now, though, sports is their chief calling card. The company owns several regional city sports networks, and is bidding against ESPN for NHL broadcast rights.

In their local quest for content, Comcast owns the Philadelphia Flyers and the Philadelphia 76ers. That's dandy, and a good beginning. But there is also talent to be found outside the Wachovia Center. If Roberts simply looked through the roster of charitable organizations Comcast already supports, he could find talent a-plenty. Philadelphia is brimming with musicians, videographers, game designers — the very content producers that Comcast craves. Philadelphia already has the people; Comcast need only provide the stage.

Comcast's partnering with local talent would help turn sullen rate-payers into genuine stakeholders. Everyone, the company and the city, would benefit. It's time Comcast cared enough to tell the Philadelphia story.