Comcast Kicks Regional News Into High Gear

Cable World, Oct 13, 2003

Byline: SHIRLEY BRADY

CN8: The Comcast Network summered in New England by building on its May launch to 2.2 million households in Boston and beyond.

Under CN8 VP and GM Jon Gorchow and CN8's New England GM Ken Botelho, Comcast's flagship regional network has been busy enhancing its locally produced programming with new talent and a marketing campaign called "Smart TV" to spread the word that CN8 stands for intelligent, compelling programming.

The network's two original regional prime-time news programs, Nitebeat and Sports Pulse, are joined this week by New England Newsmakers, a new Sunday night show in which politicians and community leaders sound off each week.

With CN8's New England strategy well in hand, the company's Eastern division is now boosting New England Cable News, the regional news network that Comcast co-owns with Hearst Corp. While available in the region to Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Adelphia and Metrocast Cablevision subscribers, the majority of NECN's 2.7 million homes are Comcast customers. That presence plus the company's 50% stake in the network prompted the channel's new identity as NECN: A Comcast News Network, a rebranding that is being bolstered with an on- and off-air marketing campaign starting this month.

The partnership between CN8, which has 6.2 million households in total, and NECN in New England is a natural for the respective networks' founders: Michael Doyle, the president of Comcast's Eastern division, who founded CN8 in 1996; and Philip Balboni, the president of NECN, which has won high-profile journalism awards (including the George Foster Peabody Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award) in its 11-year history. (CN8 is no slacker in that department, with numerous awards and an impressive 144 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award nominations to its credit.)

"Phil and his team have done an excellent job with this network, and it's a well respected network in New England and beyond," says Doyle. "Having the Comcast name associated with NECN is important because we are an owner and each year we contribute a great amount of money to keep it on the air. It's very important for our brand identity to let consumers know that these networks are owned by Comcast."

Look for further partnerships between CN8 and its news-focused cousin in New England, including using NECN and CN8 video (along with weather, high school sports coverage and other content) as part of the Get Local VOD launch in the market in the first quarter. And CN8 and NECN will cover in tandem the July 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston.

"Mike and I have discovered a great many things in common between our networks, and this serves both our interests very well," says Balboni.

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*With NECN and CN8 studios linked by fiber optic lines in New England, will NECN's streaming video news also augment Comcast's New England broadband platform?