Television
Introducing CIM
Log into Comcast.net, Fancast.com or Fandango.com and you’ll be looking at the handiwork of a new division of Comcast, Comcast Interactive Media – or as we like to call it, "CIM". About three years ago, we created this little-known part of Comcast that is playing a big role in helping innovate the next generation of Comcast’s products and services. CIM is a division of the company we set up in 2006 to develop our major Web sites and certain web features that make our current Comcast products better.
Innovating quickly inside a big company can be hard, so we started with a different model… trying to create a distinct culture, one more similar to the small Silicon Valley startups that have invented lots of the cool Internet sites and consumer products we all like today. We rented some office space a few blocks from our old headquarters, brought in some old furniture, hired some amazing web engineers, designers and product people, embraced open-source software development, went out and listened to our customers, and then set off to build some great new products using the latest tools and technologies.
With CIM, we’re trying to integrate the best of two worlds: the free-spirited, highly-creative and rapid speed of a startup, combined with the amazing assets of Comcast, including our customer relationships, content partners, existing products and technology resources. We’re well down the path of collaborating with many other important groups at the company to integrate CIM’s innovations into the overall experience for Comcast customers. We’ve made major improvements to our broadband site, comcast.net, and built and launched a fabulous video site, Fancast.com. Soon, you’ll be able to watch more of your cable shows online, remotely program your DVR, use more of our services from a mobile phone, and a whole lot more.
In developing CIM, we also bought a few of those really innovative startups I mentioned, which we’ll cover in more detail in future posts. Our newly-acquired teammates at Fandango, Plaxo, ThePlatform, Movies.com and DailyCandy have been busy figuring out and building their next products, while also integrating with and enhancing the next generation of Comcast’s existing services.
It is a ton of fun to work on these game-changing sites and features for a company like Comcast, where the potential to create really cool experiences for our consumers keeps us coming to work everyday. We have nearly 700 people in our CIM offices in Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Mountain View and Los Angeles, all creating a new generation of great products at Comcast. We think we’re on to something special that can improve the way consumers navigate, share and enjoy their entertainment.