Comcast.net Brings Home the Gold in Global Design Competition - The 39th Annual Society of Publication Designers Awards

Comcast.net Quickly Nabs One of Industry's Highest Honors Within Its First Year, Joining Past Winners Like ABCnews.com and MSNBC.com as an SPD Gold Medal Award Winner

Comcast Cable announced that Comcast.net has received one of interactive design's highest honors - the Society of Publication Designers' (SPD) Gold Medal award. One of about 8,000 entries in 75 categories, Comcast.net took home this coveted prize in the New Media category. The SPD Annual Awards judge the year's best design, illustration and photography inside the global publication design community. Specific elements of Comcast.net that particularly caught the attention of the judges include:

• "The Fan" - Comcast's patent-pending broadband multimedia player that dynamically features content from a variety of leading providers. Combining ease of use and a completely unique interface, "The Fan" is designed to deliver on-demand video like no other Internet application available today. In fact, within 30 days of its November 2003 launch, "The Fan" has increased the Comcast.net site's video usage by a factor of 10. This innovative player also boasts average viewing durations for short-form entertainment videos (5 minutes or under) that are 2.5 times the averages on competing sites. "The Fan's" success is largely attributed to the innovative way it collects and organizes video clips for easy one-click play and how it truly delivers on broadband's promise of offering pictures and videos, in addition to simple text.
• The Assistant - a toolbar designed to provide always-on utilities and super-easy drag-and-drop personalization. The Assistant's innovative design also features a detachable function that enables users to bring this broadband Internet tool any place on their computer. As a result, users can enjoy quick, constant and immediate connections to the information that is most important to them - including local weather from The Weather Channel, sports information and scores, Super Search with Google, stock watch lists, horoscopes, favorite sites, and top movies (including a feature that allows searches for local show times by ZIP code).
• The Cover - Comcast's interactive guide to the hottest content on broadband each day. The Cover features rich graphics, a photo slide show of the day's news, attention-grabbing headlines, and direct links to top stories and trends. Whereas dial-up was all about reading the news from a series of text links, The Cover delivers the news in pictures, video clips and text, neatly organized for one-click viewing.
• Overall site design

As a Gold Medal award winner, Comcast.net will be featured in the 39th Publication Design Annual (SPD Pub39) - a full-color, 272-page volume renowned for containing the work of the industry's leading designers, photographers, and illustrators. This annual, which serves as an invaluable resource for publication design professionals worldwide, is expected to become available in October 2004. Comcast.net also will be part of the SPD Pub39 traveling design show. This show is a global tour to showcase the best design, illustration and photography of the year - and includes such stops as: New York City; Savannah, Ga.; and Denmark, Copenhagen. "We are extremely honored to win the prestigious SPD Gold Medal for New Media, especially in Comcast.net's first year," said David Juliano, senior vice president and general manager, Comcast High-Speed Internet. "In addition to the accolades it has garnered for Comcast in the design and creative communities, we view this award as further confirmation that this Web site is hitting the mark for Comcast's more than 5.3 million high-speed Internet customers. Comcast.net shows what's possible in a 100 percent broadband experience. It is a testament to Comcast's unique blend of powerful design, compelling content, blazing speed, and strong partnerships." Juliano added, "An SPD Gold Medal award-winning Web site is one reason we are recognized as `the nation's leading broadband provider.' We continue to work hard to understand and deliver what our customers want and need from their broadband connection."

In taking home this award, Comcast.net joins a distinguished group of past Gold Medal winners that also include: ABCnews.com, MSNBC.com and Nick.com. Additional award winners in this year's 39th annual competition include: Timeinc.net, NYTimes.com, BHG.com and GAIN 2.0/aiga.org. SPD encourages artistic excellence by annually judging the work of thousands of design professionals in the United States and abroad. The Comcast.net Development Team will receive this distinguished honor at a May 7, 2004 black-tie-gala ceremony to be held at The New York Public Library in New York City.

About the Society of Publication Designers Annual Competition Since 1965, the Society of Publication Designers annual competition has drawn thousands of entries from around the world. This event continually provides a venue for promoting and recognizing only the best in publication design. For four decades, the SPD judging teams have been comprised of the best art directors and design professionals chosen for their expertise and talent.

About Comcast.net

Comcast's premier broadband online service, www.comcast.net features news, weather, and stocks, plus exclusive broadband content with streaming video and high-quality sound.  Comcast.net features include:

• The Fan, an innovative broadband video player. Since its launch on www.comcast.net, video usage on the site has increased by a factor of 10.
• The Assistant, a personalized toolbar with always-on utilities such as weather, sports scores, stock watch lists, horoscopes and much, much more.
• Content from leading providers such as E!, G4, The Weather Channel, IFC, Planeta Networks, Atom Films, and others.
• Comcast Rhapsody, the country's leading Internet jukebox service that provides subscribers with unlimited access to a vast library of music from all five major labels plus more than 200 independent music labels. 
• "AskComcast," an interactive help tool developed using technology from Conversagent, Inc. This interactive agent "chats" with Comcast High- Speed Internet customers in a conversational personalized way, helping them find information they desire about their service and its features.

About Comcast
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.