Comcast Corp

After two decades as owner of one of America's storied broadcasters, and five years operating a fabled movie studio, General Electric Co. appears ready to take a smaller part in show business. The industrial giant, maker of jet engines and wind turbines, is in talks to have cable TV leader Comcast Corp. assume management of NBC Universal, which includes NBC; more than 10 cable channels including Bravo, MSNBC and USA Network; the Universal Pictures movie studio; and the Universal Studios theme parks.

Call it Goliath Versus Goliath. Cable giant Comcast Corp. is locked in an ugly battle with satellite broadcaster DirecTV over the sports channel Versus. Unable to strike a new deal with Comcast, DirecTV on Tuesday dropped carriage of Versus to its 14 million subscribers. Such disputes are usually resolved behind the scenes, but not in this case. After removing Versus from its lineup, DirecTV slapped a notice on the channel the network had occupied, announcing: "Comcast, which owns Versus, has forced us to take down the channel because we will not submit to their unfair and outrageous demands."

The nation's biggest cable operator can now get bigger. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with Comcast Corp. and against the Federal Communications Commission on Friday in a closely watched case over how many of the nation's roughly 100 million cable TV subscribers one company should be allowed to serve. In throwing out the FCC's rules that no cable company can serve more than 30% of the nation's TV marketplace, the court said the regulatory agency did not factor in competition in the form of satellite television in its arguments for why the industry should not be allowed to expand.

A plan by Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. to ensure that people who watch TV on the Web are already cable-TV subscribers faces several hurdles, including the technical -- a workable encryption system -- and the political -- whether consumers will view it as an attempt to wall off free content.

Cable company Comcast Corp. reported first-quarter profit and sales that beat analysts' estimates by adding customers and cutting capital spending. Net income rose 5.5% to $772 million, or 27 cents a share, from $732 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, the Philadelphia company said. Excluding some costs, profit was 27 cents, exceeding the 23-cent average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales increased 5.3% to $8.84 billion, also topping estimates. Chief Executive Brian Roberts is offering more discounted packages of television and Internet to win customers, fending off competition from phone and satellite providers and the increasing popularity of TV on the Web. Comcast invested in upgrades to its high-speed Web products while it cut capital spending overall by 19%. The company added about 837,000 net new customers for Internet, phone and digital TV last quarter.

Federal government to DirecTV and Comcast cable: What part of Do Not Call didn't you understand? Satellite television provider DirecTV Inc. agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle charges that it made more than 1 million calls to its customers who had -- as was their right -- placed themselves on a Do Not Call list, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. And why did the company make the calls? To ask the customers to remove themselves from the list, the agency said.

Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable TV provider, said its fourth-quarter earnings fell 32%, hampered by a $600-million write-down of its investment in wireless technology provider Clearwire Corp. Comcast's revenue and adjusted earnings beat Wall Street estimates, and the Philadelphia company raised its dividend 8%. However, Comcast showed markedly slower growth in its video, high-speed Internet and phone businesses. Comcast earned $412 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $602 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier.

The Terminator said he would be back. Now, Comcast Corp. cable TV subscribers can summon him from their sofas. The Philadelphia-based cable giant joined movie company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. on Tuesday to announce the launch of a video-on-demand channel, Impact, solely for action titles like the Arnold Schwarzenegger picture, as well as action-oriented TV shows. Comcast and MGM said they began offering the channel this week. Drawing from MGM's library of 1,000 action movies, including classics such as "The Magnificent Seven" and films from the James Bond franchise, the advertiser-supported channel hopes to attract viewers who don't want to wait for a Netflix rental to arrive in the mail or a programmed cable channel to air their favorites.

Federal regulators issued a warning to all Internet service providers Friday with a sharp rebuke of Comcast Corp. for blocking some customers from using file-sharing technology. By a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission found that the cable company failed to tell its subscribers about the blocking, lied about it when confronted by the commission and tried to cripple online video sites that compete with its on-demand service.

Comcast Corp. on Wednesday reported an 8% increase in second-quarter profit, a solid performance in the face of a seasonally slower quarter made tougher by a decelerated economy. Although the nation's largest cable operator lost basic video subscribers in the quarter, such losses were in line with or better than what analysts had expected. Notably, Comcast, also the country's second-largest Internet service provider, showed that it was taking market share from rival phone companies, which reported much weaker broadband gains.