Comcast executive gives Rider community inside view of company

Nearly 300 people gathered at Rider University on Nov. 14 to hear Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen speak on the intersection of business and media. He sat down in the Cavalla Room with Emmy-winning NBC10 anchor Rosemary Connors to answer questions from her and the audience. 

The night started with the role the media played in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen stated that this is a time of great introspection for the media, in the wake of the failure of many major media outlets to predict Donald Trump's victory. Going forward, Cohen said the NBCUniversal family will look more closely at how everyone, from candidates to voters, engage with the media.

From there, the night turned to one of the other biggest news story of the year, the Summer Olympics in Rio. This year’s Olympics were the most profitable for NBC, Cohen said, adding that it was intriguing to watch the growth of streaming. He reported that 3.3 billion people tuned in to the live stream on NBC’s sports app. Some worry that live streaming could hurt content providers, but Cohen said it was “balanced, not cannibalized.” Most ratings still came from taped coverage airing at prime time. 
 
Self-competition isn’t Comcast’s only concern. It also faces it from entertainment giants like Disney and 21st Century Fox and media service providers like Dish, DirectTV, Verizon Fios and AT&T. “We have real competitors,” Cohen said, disputing the idea that the merger of Comcast and NBCUniversal created a monopoly. “Competition has been increasing, not decreasing…It has made us a better company,” he said. 

Cohen cited local stations as an example: When the company invests in local stations, so does the competition, and the consumers get better local news and programming across the board as a result. 

Even internet streaming services like Netflix can be good for the company, Cohen said. Connors brought up an old quote from Cohen calling Netflix the “ultimate frenemy.” It still holds true, Cohen said, but joked they were now “More fren- than -emy.” He called it a “complementary service” rather than competition. While Netflix allows viewers to catch up on shows, people also need live, current TV. 

At the end of the night, the audience was invited to ask their own questions. Students, faculty and others lined up to get the chance. Students from different disciplines came forward to ask about various topics, such as media bias and diversity in the company’s content. “It was interesting to see the different questions people from different majors came up with,” Kenny Williamson, a senior English and education major, said. 

It seemed students were invested in learning more about the business of media. Rena Carmen, a senior communications major, said, “Now, with social media, the business is always changing. You have to learn to keep up with it to stay in business.” For Cohen and Comcast, that means learning from surprising results, pushing themselves to compete, and embracing new opportunities and trends in technology.

Cohen's appearance was made possible by a generous gift from Rob Hagedorn ’81.