The Rio Games were a focal point during the first morning of the cable industry’s annual convention. Speaking yesterday during opening general session at INTX in Boston, Comcast Chair & CEO Brian Roberts unveiled some of the bells and whistles that his company will trot out this summer, including a plan to stream 6,000 hours of Olympic competition via Comcast’s X1 set-top box. Comcast will allow many of its subscribers to search and personalize the events and stream them to their big screen TVs via what Roberts called an “NBC Olympics dashboard.” "We'll have more live coverage on Day One in Rio than the entire Atlanta Olympics," Roberts said, adding that he does not expect the additional hours to hurt ratings. Currently, about one-third of Comcast’s 22 million subscribers have access to X1. During a press conference following the panel, Roberts said he is prepared for glitches to happen -- both with Rio and with Comcast’s streams -- but he predicted a “spectacular” Games (John Ourand, Staff Writer). Roberts added, “If it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and I want to watch the crew races, I just get on a live stream and I can watch it on my TV. If I want to watch the floor exercises, I can do that. Or in primetime because there’s so much buzz and excitement in social media and now all these live streams right on your TV and on-demand content … along comes Bob Costas at the primetime show. We think NBC will have one of the best Olympics it’s ever had.” Roberts added, “With all of these options and choices, we’ll appeal to more consumers” (“Squawk on the Street,” CNBC, 5/16).
NO DEAL NEAR WITH YES: Roberts yesterday also indicated that his company’s carriage battle with YES Network is not near a resolution. “We’re learning from the experience that we’re having in New Jersey (with YES Network) and we hope to get it resolved at some point. But maybe not,” he said during a press conference following the INTX’s opening general session. Roberts pointed to the problems Comcast had launching an RSN in Houston and the problems TWC is having launching the Dodgers channel in L.A. as evidence that the market for RSNs has changed (Ourand).
