Comcast’s Xfinity Celebrates Black History Month with Special Entertainment Choices across Screens and Devices

Published on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 10:07 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

PHILADELPHIA-( Business Wire )-

Comcast’s Xfinity is celebrating Black History Month on Xfinity On Demand, XfinityTV.com, Xfinity.com and through the Xfinity TV app available on the iPad^®, iPhone^® and iPod touch^® with special programming to recognize African-American culture and contributions. This February also marks the second anniversary of the launch of Black Cinema on Xfinity On Demand, a year-round offering that features themed movie collections that highlight African-American films, filmmakers and actors.

“We are proud to celebrate Black History Month with a variety of entertaining and educational programs that highlight historic events, timely perspectives and cultural contributions by African-Americans,” said Marcien Jenckes, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Video Services, Comcast. “This offering is available all month long and we encourage customers to take part in the celebration by watching. In 2012, we will continue to bring more African-American lifestyle and educational programming designed to entertain, inform and inspire.”

Xfinity’s Black History Month offering is available on Xfinity On Demand, XfinityTV.com, Xfinity.com and through the Xfinity TV app. Programming features historically-themed movies, TV series, documentaries, biographies of African-American entertainers and artists, news, slideshows and trivia. Highlights include: The Color Purple; Ray; The Help; Amistad; Roots: The Mini Series, Part 1-6; The Black List: Volume 1-3; MLK: The Assassination Tapes; biographies of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner; a slideshow featuring the 20 Most Influential African-American Women; and historic trivia.

Since its founding nearly 50 years ago, Comcast has had a longstanding commitment to diversity and focuses its efforts in four key areas: attracting and retaining a multicultural workforce, developing a diverse supplier group, offering a wide selection of multicultural programming and pledging significant community investments. Today, Xfinity brings customers a variety of entertainment and educational choices from various networks that focus on African-American audiences, including Black Entertainment Television (BET), Centric, Music Choice and BET Jazz. Comcast’s Xfinity also recently expanded the distribution of The Africa Channel and TV One and plans to launch two new African-American-owned and/or operated networks by February 2013.

About Comcast Cable

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers. Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.

PROGRAMMING ADDENDUM

Xfinity On Demand – Historically-Themed Movies (available on 2/1/12 in the Top Picks section under Black History)
-- Amistad (available on 2/7)		-- Notorious
-- Antwone Fisher		-- Precious
-- Cadillac Records		-- Pride
-- Malcolm X		-- Ray
-- Miracle at St. Anna (available on 2/7)		-- Roots: The Mini Series, Part 1-6
-- The Color Purple		-- The Lena Baker Story
-- The Help
-- The Last King of Scotland

Xfinity On Demand – Specials (available on 2/1/12 in the Top Picks section under Black History)

-- MLK: The Assassination Tapes, an immersive documentary from The Smithsonian Channel created almost entirely through the use of television and radio news footage from the weeks leading up to Dr. King’s murder.

-- TV One’s The Black List: Volume 1-3, African-American notables share candid stories and revealing insights into the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in the U.S.

-- Biographies of African-American entertainers and artists including: Aretha Franklin, Bill Cosby, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Tyler Perry and Whitney Houston.

-- The Golf Channel’s Uneven Fairways, a documentary that reveals the history of African-Americans forbidden to play golf at its highest level, but who refused to take "no" for an answer, paving the way for the game’s future.

XfinityTV.com – Movies
-- Biggie & Tupac					-- The Cotton Club
-- Hoop Dreams					-- Too White for Me
-- The Jackie Robinson Story

XfinityTV.com and Xfinity TV app – Movies
-- Classified-X		-- The Jackie Robinson Story
-- Soul Food		-- Waiting to Exhale (available until 2/17)
-- I Can Be President: A Kids Eye View		-- Way Down South (1939) (available until 2/18)
-- Jumping the Broom
-- Sugar Ray Robinson: Bright Lights and Dark Shadows

XfinityTV.com – Specials and TV

-- CBS’ 60 Minutes: First Christmas without MLK (1968), this segment reflects the troubled mood of the nation that year and shows a somber Christmas story from the family room of Martin Luther King, Jr. just months after he was killed.

-- TV shows such as Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and biographies of entertainers Aretha Franklin, Jamie Foxx and Stevie Wonder.

Xfinity.com – Short-form Videos, Slideshows, News, Health and Trivia Highlights
-- Slideshow: 20 Most Influential African-American Women		-- Trivia: Jackie Robinson
-- Slideshow: Greatest African-American actors		-- Short-form videos: Black History Month
-- Slideshow: Martin Luther King, Jr.		-- Short-form videos: Black History
-- Slideshow: Greatest African-American athletes		-- Short-form videos: Martin Luther King, Jr.
-- Trivia: General Black History

Comcast CorporationEllen Mellody, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.