2 | THE GOOD SPORTS
Why Them? Last year, these two shot to the top of the CableFAX 100 list in no small part because of the success of the London Olympics. Now they are prepping for the Winter Games, and expectations are high for both the content and operations side of the business. What could make February’s event even more exciting is the mass innovation happening in the technology side of the house. Smit’s team is continuing to roll out the X1 Platform, with it expected to cover about half of Comcast’s footprint by the end of second quarter. At the Cable Show in D.C., Comcast will show off the next-generation version of X1. Over in Burke’s territory, NBCU is already building excitement for the Sochi Olympics through promos and plans to use it as a vehicle to promote programming, including the transition of NBC’s “Tonight Show” from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon. Let’s just hope it goes down better than the O’Brien-Leno fiasco—although TBS seems pretty happy with how that one shook out! ?
