Comcast Launches 'Breast Cancer Hope,' a Video-On-Demand and Online Initiative Providing Convenient Access to Breast Cancer Information and Resources

To help raise awareness and provide important information about breast cancer, a disease that about one in eight women will develop during their lives,  Comcast is launching Breast Cancer Hope, a first-of-its-kind video-on-demand and online initiative bringing together educational and inspirational content for all women and their loved ones. 

Comcast is working with Lifetime, which is serving as the sponsor of Breast Cancer Hope, as well as The Style Network, HBO, Discovery Health and Exercise TV and breastcancer.org, the leading online site for medically reviewed and up-to-date information about breast cancer, to present dozens of programs about detecting and living with breast cancer, as well as discussion forums, health and fitness advice and relevant news clips. 

Beginning this week and continuing throughout October, Comcast customers with ON DEMAND service will have access to more than 40 programs in five topical areas:

• Inspiration: six episodes of HBO's Sex and the City featuring Samantha's (Kim Cattrall) battle with breast cancer; segments from the Lifetime series Intimate Portraits featuring profiles of Ann Curry, Betsey Johnson and Rosanna Arquette, as well as the Emmy®-nominated Lifetime original movie, Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, starring Sarah Chalke (Scrubs); the documentary Dear Talula, about a young mother who discovers she has breast cancer; and from Discovery Health, personal and motivational stories from cancer survivors such as I Have Breast Cancer: Janice's Journey.   
• Fact or Fiction: exclusive content created by Lifetime and breastcancer.org featuring interviews with doctors and other health professionals that offer a patient's perspective about what to expect from visits to specialists like radiologists, breast surgeons, oncologists, plastic surgeons and genetics counselors.
• What's My Risk: from Discovery Health's series Breast Health: New Hope, programming on breast cancer causes, prevention and treatment are featured along with the experiences of families affected by the disease; healthy-cooking recipes from Comcast's Digital Cookbook series; mini workouts from Exercise TV; and breast-cancer-related episodes from Comcast's Seeking Solutions with Suzanne and It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle.  
• Breast Cancer Info.: programs following women from the diagnosis stage through treatment and exploring plastic surgery and reconstruction options.
• Fashion Tips: advice for patients and survivors, from demonstrations of how to wear a scarf to makeover shows, including special segments from The Style Network's popular series, How Do I Look? and Whose Wedding is it Anyway?

Comcast also is making a wide range of breast cancer information available online at www.comcast.net/breastcancer.  At that site, visitors can view video news reports, read and post to message boards about breast cancer, and send their questions to Dr. Marisa Weiss, the founder of breastcancer.org. 

"Through Breast Cancer Hope, we are providing a resource that can make a meaningful, lasting impact on people's lives by raising awareness and providing information about the disease," said Matt Strauss, Senior Vice President, New Media for Comcast.  "Our goal is to make it easy for women to explore this important topic from the privacy and convenience of their own homes." 

Added Dr. Weiss, "VOD is a powerful tool to advance the conversation about women and breast cancer. We are pleased to partner with Comcast and leading cable networks to present this comprehensive offering to millions of customers."

Lifetime has championed the fight against breast cancer and is dedicated to offering women up-to-date, comprehensive information about breast cancer. Part of Lifetime's Emmy®-winning My Lifetime Commitment public awareness campaigns, the Stop Breast Cancer for Life initiative reaches women and families in more than 96 million homes across the country and in partnership with the Network's cable affiliates, advertising sponsors and 10 leading nonprofit organizations. The network also has collected more than 20 million signatures on LifetimeTV.com to urge Congress to pass the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S.910/H.R.1849). The bill would end the practice of "drive-through" mastectomies, where women are sometimes forced to leave the hospital sometimes hours following their surgeries even if they and their doctors feel they are not ready to go home.

"After 13 successful years working with our affiliates on our award-winning "Stop Breast Cancer for Life" campaign, we are happy to expand our efforts through this new partnership with Comcast and breastcancer.org," said Louise Henry Bryson, President, Distribution & Affiliate Business Development for Lifetime.  "By providing educational, entertaining and inspirational video on demand content to Comcast customers, we will give more women greater access to critical life-saving information."

Comcast customers are currently using the ON DEMAND service more than 250 million times per month, and Comcast.net reaches more than 15 million unique visitors per month.  Both platforms will highlight the Breast Cancer Hope initiative to help make consumers aware of the resources available to them.  For more information about Comcast's services, customers can visit www.comcast.com. 

About Comcast 
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (http://www.comcast.com) is the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 24.1 million cable customers, 12.4 million high-speed Internet customers, and 3.5 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.

Comcast's content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, The Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, AZN Television, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One, Comcast SportsNet and Comcast Interactive Media, which develops and operates Comcast's Internet business. Comcast also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.