Comcast Presents Election 2004 ON DEMAND Featuring Colorado Senate Race
Philadelphia, PA.
Comcast announced today that the Company is showcasing the race for U.S. Senate in the state of Colorado on Comcast ON DEMAND, Comcast's Video on Demand (VOD) service. "Candidates on Demand" is an innovative pilot initiative that will use new television technology to enable Colorado voters to learn more about issues of importance in the election featuring Republican Pete Coors and Democrat Ken Salazar.
Comcast customers in Colorado with VOD will be able to watch each candidate's response to seven major policy questions any time they want, as well as pause, stop, rewind, and fast forward the candidates' responses. Both candidates will have approximately three minutes each to individually address topics including education, health care, the economy, Social Security and homeland security. These policy statements will be available any time between the afternoon of October 19th and November 1st. This public service initiative reflects Comcast's commitment to the communities it serves. Comcast's VOD service is provided to Comcast Digital Cable customers at no additional charge, and is being rapidly rolled out across Colorado. To date, Comcast provides VOD service to approximately 215,000 customers in Colorado.
Comcast is also making the Candidates on Demand content available to Bresnan Communications for the cable operator to distribute to their VOD customers in Colorado. Bresnan has 11,000 VOD customers, bringing the combined total distribution in Colorado to 226,000.
"At a time when candidates increasingly have to communicate with viewers through sound bites, Candidates on Demand enables voters to get in-depth information about the candidates' position on important issues," said David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corporation. "We are piloting this innovative use of our Video on Demand technology in Colorado to see if we can help voters understand where the candidates stand on a number of issues of importance in this crucial election. This project in Colorado serves as a trial for an innovation that has the potential to revolutionize the way voters can learn where their candidates stand."
"It's a pleasure and an honor to be part of this unique effort to inform the voters of Colorado," said Republican candidate Pete Coors. "I think it's wonderful that Comcast is putting advanced cable TV and Internet technology at the service of democracy, and putting a promotional effort behind it so that voters will know where to find this important information about the candidates."
"Now Coloradans can learn more about the people who want to represent them in Washington any time they choose, day or night," said Democratic candidate Ken Salazar. "I really appreciate this opportunity to use on-demand cable services to get our unfiltered views directly to the public, and I commend Comcast for conducting this historic pilot program in our great state."
Comcast selected the U.S. Senate race in Colorado for this trial, because in addition to being a major Comcast market, Colorado has an open Senate seat in an election where the balance of power in the Senate is closely split between the major parties (51R, 48D, 1I). To alert Colorado viewers to the availability of the Candidates on Demand content, Comcast will run excerpts of the candidates' responses at the end of CNN Headline Newscasts in its Colorado systems, reaching 682,000 customers. These excerpts end by directing viewers to Candidates on Demand for further information. Comcast is also running PSA-type spots to let voters know of the availability of the Candidates on Demand content on its cable systems in Colorado as well. Headline News segments will go to over 105,000 Adelphia subscribers. In addition to carrying the VOD component, Bresnan has also agreed to make the Headline News segments available to its subscribers. The Headline News segments will be available to 60,000 Bresnan subscribers, bringing the total number of Headline News segments offered by the three companies to 847,000. In addition, starting October 19th Comcast.net, Comcast's broadband portal for the company's high-speed Internet customers will include a cover about Candidates on Demand on the Campaign 2004 page: Comcast.net/campaign2004. Comcast's high-speed Internet customers in Colorado will also see promo ads about Candidates on Demand throughout Comcast.net. Both the ads and the Campaign 2004 cover will open "The Fan," Comcast.net's multimedia service, and show one promotional video, 14 candidates on demand videos, and two headline news videos.
About Comcast Cable
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable is a division of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), a developer, manager and operator of broadband cable networks and provider of programming content. With a presence in 22 of the top 25 United States markets, Comcast is one of the leading communications, media and entertainment companies in the world. Providing basic cable, Digital Cable, high-speed Internet and telephone services, Comcast is the company to look to first for the communications products and services that connect people to what's important in their lives. The company's 59,000 employees serve more than 21 million customers.