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Television Shows and Money

Here’s Everything Comcast Owns, Apart From Your Soul

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Comcast profits up 14 percent despite losing 121,000 cable-TV ...

There was a time when Comcast was known primarily as a cable provider.

Well they can now add media conglomerate to that list, while they skip down the street all the way to the bank to make those deposits.

Disney had better watch out!

Executives at Comcast began courting a merger between itself and NBC Universal, creating a $30 billion dollar behemoth. This was during the 2009 financial crisis.

Remember folks, fortunes are made in recessions. *Cough, cough.* Ahem, like the one we are in now.

By 2011, regulators granted Comcast permission to buy NBC, with a 51% stake in the company and the option of gaining the controlling interest from GE Capital in 2013 in order to sweep the pool.

Disney and Comcast are now playing in the same media juggernaut sandlot. Capitalism at its finest.

Comcast, the No. 1 provider of video and residential Internet service in the United States, already had about 23 million subscribers at the time of the deal.

Comcast now has ownership of tons of cable channels and movies, as well as the rights to those shows; assets that include NBC broadcast stations, cable channels like Bravo, USA and E!, the Universal movie studio as well as theme parks among other assets.

Here are some of the big brands it owns.

NBC Universal Television

NBC is home and resting place to some of the biggest shows on television.

The most commercially successful television show of all time is also included in their list of favorites; Seinfeld, the show about nothing. However, they lost streaming rights in a $500 million bidding war with Netflix and then again to HBO.

Regardless, the most streamed shows on Netflix were The Office, Friends, and Parks and Recreation, Netflix will have none of these shows in 2020, but NBC owns control of all except Friends.

The Emmy contender This is Us is also on its rooster along with a catalog that is comprised of a wide range of classic sitcoms, reboots of classic sitcoms, new original shows, and a library of films from Universal Pictures.

Universal Pictures

It is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States.

In March 2013, Comcast bought the remaining 49% of NBC Universal for $16.7 billion.

It’s film library includes Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, and the multi-billion dollar, box-office record breaker The Fast and the Furious Franchise. I can hear the cash register now. Cha-ching.

Universal Parks & Resorts

As they are always trying to give Disney a run for their money, Comcast also owns the Universal theme parks.

With locations spanning across the globe: Orlando, FL, Singapore, Japan, and Hollywood.

In 2017, approximately 49,458,000 guests visited Universal Studios theme parks, making it the third-largest amusement park operator in the world. Its major competitors are only Disney and Six Flags.

To put this in perspective, the country of Canada has a total population of 35,000,000. That means every year, the equivalent of entire the population of Canada descends down to visit their theme parks annually.

In addition, they also own the rights to display characters and images at their parks such as The Transformers, Chucky, and others.

I got up close and personal with them when I went to Universal Studios in Orlando. No doubt about it. Comcast is making a mint.

E! Entertainment Television

Comcast now owns shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and E! News.

As of January 2016, E! is available to 92.4 million households in the United States.

CNBC

The network acquired its main competitor, the Financial News Network, a move which expanded both its distribution and its workforce.

Cablevision subsequently sold its stake to NBC, giving NBC sole ownership.

As of February 2015, CNBC is available to approximately 93,623,000 pay television households (80.4% of households with television) in the United States. 

In 2007, the network was ranked as the 19th most valuable cable channel in the United States, worth roughly $4 billion.

CNBC is the world leader in business news and real-time financial market coverage.

The rest of Comcast

It has even more major brands in its portfolio, but you get the idea. Comcast is making money hand over fist. If you are a cable provider guppy, then watch out, because Comcast is the shark.

Financial Freedom, Real Estate

American homes are now $1,100 per month storage units

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American homes are becoming expensive storage units.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. – Benjamin Franklin

According to Zillow, the median home price in the United States is $200,000 across the country.

According to CNBC, in other cities across America, the price of a home is even higher.

That’s not too bad.

However, considering that the median income is $50,000 buying a home can be tough.

That would mean to purchase a home, based on the median price, you would have to spend up to four times the average median income!

Um. Hold up. I do not want to be house rich, cash poor. So, I suggest that people wait to buy until you can afford a decent down payment.

Lately, I have heard a lot of stories from friends, colleagues, and acquaintances about their desire to purchase a home.

I am all for it. I want what they want. It’s the American Dream after all, isn’t it?

Not according to some.

There are quite a few financial experts and self-made millionaires that feel a home is a liability and not an asset.

Unfortunately, in many ways a home is a liability. Unless it gives you money, its taking it from you.

Let’s examine this further shall we.

HOME OR STORAGE UNIT

Times have changed.

I remember when one parent would work and the other would stay home and take care of home. One working parent was able to put food on the table and provide for a family of four or five.

You could come home after working your nine-to-five and enjoy spending time with your family. You could eat dinner together and just enjoy relaxing in your home.

There were less cars on the road as many families in the 1950’s had only one car. There were not four licensed drivers and three cars.

Then in the 1980’s we went to two cars. And families were still able to put food on the table and take a yearly vacation.

If you want to have some additional confirmation and perspective on how times have changed, watch the scene in the film Back to the Future where Marty (played by Michael J. Fox) from 1985 says we have two televisions and listen for the responses from his family from 1955.

That’s right. One home, one car, one television. Simple, right. The good old days.

Well, those days are long gone for most folks.

It now takes most families having two incomes. And that is just to make ends meet. Many Americans are now living check to check.

It is not uncommon today to have two working parents.

Not only that, but to have one parent working multiple jobs.

For some people, it has gotten so bad that they are practically (or literally for some folks in Silicon Valley) living in their cars.

People go out, earn the money, and then spend upwards of 50% of take home pay on housing.

And that is after taxes (net not gross).

With housing prices in cities going for $500,000 or more, most of your paycheck is gone.

And yes, homes are going for half a million in various parts of the country. That is fact, not fiction.

According to Zillow, the median list price in Washington, DC is $568,600.

According to CNBC, in other cities across America, the price of a home is even higher.

Now working adults have to move further away from their jobs to find affordable housing. As to earn a decent salary usually means longer commutes, when you work in the city.

I live in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. It is not unusual for someone to regularly have a one-hour commute.

The DC area has the second-longest average commute with an average travel time of 46 minutes or just under 25 minutes per one-way commute.

Let’s do a little math.

You start your day at 5 am. Get to work by 8 am. Put in the customary 8 hours. Travel back home and get there by 6 pm. Eat dinner, hug the kids, watch the evening news, and get ready for bed at 9 pm. Get the standard 8 hours and then do it all over again until Friday at 5 pm.

If you calculate through all that time, you will see you only spent about 5 + 8 = 13 hours at home and eight of them while you were asleep!

Oh, and don’t forget the weekend trips to the wine bars, parties, and regular outings or errands. Yep, again that is all time spent away from home.

You are not really utilizing and enjoying this home you are working so hard for. It has become a pit stop on the way to the work, the grocery store, the dry cleaners, soccer practice, and the trips to the Caribbean.

Basically, your home is storing your stuff.

You are either gone, going away from home or asleep most of the time your there.

Mighty expensive digs to be fronting as your own personal hotel, if you ask me.

Now let’s look at the cost of buying and furnishing a home.

BUYING THE AMERICAN DREAM

Not so long ago, families bought starter homes with hopes of trading up later when finances permitted to get their dream home.

Now, I hear more folks buying the dream home as the starter home.

So, instead of buying a condo or townhouse, people are getting 5-bedroom single family homes as the forever home.

Well, guess what? Dreams costs…. A lot.

Not only are homebuyers ponying up bigger down payments and closing costs for this mini Mansion, but also have to furnish it.

Trips to Ikea and Pottery Barn are being replaced with expensive interior designers and Havertys.

Not to mention, the costly window treatments ($500 per window), replacing new carpets with newer carpets, custom chef’s kitchen, fancy gas range, custom back splash, French doors, custom king bed, home office with Vizio or MacBook laptop, and the pool furniture.

And don’t forget buying a state of the art sound system for the man cave.

After going through every room, you spend enough dough to put one kid through college furnishing your new home.

Let’s add it up.

Home purchase price: $400,000 (approved for this amount)

Living Room Furniture: $10,000

Dining Room Furniture: $5,000

Bed Room Furniture: $8,000

Man Cave: $3,000

Kitchen remodel: $9,000

Office Furniture: $3,000

And you budgeted $240,000 for the home and $15,000 for the furnishings. With a total of $255,000.

However, what was spend was this: $438,000

That’s a difference of $183,000!

You could buy another house for that amount. You could then keep one and rent out the other. Merely a suggestion.

STORAGE UNITS FOR $1,100 PER MONTH

You read that right.

That comes out to $13,200 per year.

You’re essentially paying the bank thousands of dollars annually for you to literally have a place to store your hat box.

If you invest money in the stock market over 30 years and get a 7% return, you could have over $600,000 squirreled away!

Forget what lenders say you can afford. Do what you know you can afford.

Don’t be led astray from your budget. Stick to it. This will help you prosper and thrive instead of just survive.

Moral of the story: Don’t let your dreams be bigger than your wallet.