Comcast Day

The company is huge and public, but in some ways, it keeps a low profile. On June 28, 1963, Ralph J. Roberts in conjunction with his two business partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, purchased American Cable Systems as a corporate spin-off from its parent, Jerrold Electronics, for U.S. $500,000. At the time, American Cable was a small cable operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, with five channels and 12,000 customers. In 1965, American Cable Systems purchased Storecast Corporation of America, a product placement supermarket specialist marketing firm. In 1968, American Cable Systems purchased its first franchise of Muzak, a brand of background music played in retail stores. Storecast was a client of Muzak.

Today Comcast Corporation is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Number of employees: 190,000 (2019). It's a very diverse company that owns everything from the Bravo Network to the Shrek movies.

Disney is not just Comcast's rival at the movies -- both companies also have theme park divisions, and both were bidders for the Harry Potter property, which has been a huge hit for Universal Studios at its Florida park and soon-to-be at its California locations.