360AM: Comcast Aims for 6,000 VOD Titles by ’09

Cable360AM — News briefing for Tuesday, Jan. 8 »

"John Anderson for President" stickers have appeared mysteriously in the Cable360 newsroom. Good morning.

Comcast plans to boost the number of on-demand movies it offers from 1,300 a month to 6,000 by 2009, and has named this initiative Project Infinity. Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, made the announcement about the video-on-demand upgrade at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, BusinessWeek reports. Comcast is taking advantage of its longstanding relationships with programmers such as HBO, Showtime and Starz in an effort to head off Internet content distributors such as Apple. Roughly 3,000 of Comcast’s VOD titles will be presented in high definition, according to Roberts.
    Comcast also promoted at CES its Fancast streaming video service. [BusinessWeek]

Matsushita, Sharp and Sony announced at CES partnerships that will enable owners of their new Internet-connected televisions to download content to their screens, the Financial Times reports. Matsushita and Google, for instance, signed a deal that will send YouTube videos to the electronics manufacturer’s large TV screens. [Financial Times]

Google is following in the footsteps of Microsoft (and Comcast) as it treks the halls of Capitol Hill, trying to convince legislators that it has not grown too large, Ken Auletta reports in the New Yorker. [New Yorker]

Verizon and AT&T’s huge cell phone businesses will be their ultimate weapons in their battles with cable operators for TV, phone and Internet-access customers, Robert Cyran writes in Business Spectator. [Business Spectator]

Winners of the Golden Globes will be announced at a press conference next Sunday night. The televised awards dinner has been canceled because of the writers’ strike and the unwillingness of attendees to cross picket lines, the New York Times reports. [New York Times]

In CableFAX Daily: Trouble within the American Cable Association. Yesterday’s 360 Update.

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