Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) knows its on-demand platform is a key feature that drives both revenue and customer satisfaction. Content is king, as they say, and there's nothing subscribers like better than having total control over content. The ability to watch things at one's convenience offers true value.
Local content, while not necessarily as popular as the latest movies or television shows from Disney or Viacom, is nevertheless an important ingredient in cable success. It's no wonder, then, that Comcast is looking to expand its packaging and distribution of programming from a particular community. In a recent press release, the cable company outlined the development of a Local Video On Demand team that would serve more than 5 million customers. The team's primary focus would be cultivating content such as parades and high-school sporting events. The goal is to have somewhere around 20,000 shows in a region -- an increase of more than 200% -- in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C.
Comcast's "Get Local" feature, part of the menu of On Demand offerings, puts the spotlight on a community and its denizens. Investing in initiatives that ensure the spotlight remains on local people is smart. Sure, talk to a lot of people about programming produced in their city and, more than likely, a few eyes will be rolled in your direction -- putting events down the street on a cable channel can sometimes feel corny.
But I believe there is a net benefit in local programming. I might be a little biased, though; I've been involved in local cable-access programming myself. But consider how multimedia applications all center on customization -- website portals such as Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) AOL site and Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) all contain options for setting up the delivery of local information such as weather, news, movie schedules, etc. Web browsing on mobile devices is also equipped to return this kind of data, allowing a user to make the interactive experience both relevant and personal.
Granted, Local Video On Demand is only valuable to a restricted geographical area, but viewers can feel a certain connectivity by watching shows that feature familiar people and events. And keep in mind that this is a simple, effective way for Comcast to foster goodwill in the cities where it operates; it's a public service, one which municipalities have come to expect of cable companies.
Comcast is a major competitive force in the cable industry, going up against the likes of Cablevision (NYSE:CVC), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), and satellite entities DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) and EchoStar (NASDAQ:DISH). It's used its on-demand platform to good advantage -- I see the expansion of its local programming coverage as a useful strategy for entrenching its service into the fabric of a community. We may only be talking about broadcasting the football game down the street, but it means a lot to those who want to watch such content.
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Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney. As of this writing, he was ranked No. 15,084 out of more than 60,000 investors in the CAPS system. Don't know what CAPS is? Check it out. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
