Here’s one way to woo lawmakers while awaiting a regulatory approval: give ‘em movies.
Comcast announced that it is adding roughly 9,000 movies (including "The Hangover") to its goofily-named Xfinity video-on-demand service, bringing the total titles available to 11,000.
Comcast said it plans to test the service in the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. markets before the rest of the country.
The company made the announcement at the Cable Show in L.A. on Tuesday, where CEO Brian Roberts discussed Comcast’s proposed merger with NBC Universal.
Roberts said Peter Chernin, a former News Corp. executive and advisor to Comcast in the deal, told him not to agree to the merger "if you can’t fall in love with NBC."
Roberts also said he feels better today about doing the proposed deal now than he did five months ago, thanks to a turnaround in local advertising.
He hinted that Comcast may look to invest more in NBC News than current owner General Electric. Roberts called NBC’s news division “the single most awesome asset” in the NBCU deal.
