Businessweek

which provides access to email, an address book, online storage and online security features. The company’s customers also have the ability to access these services, including manage their email accounts and security features, using its mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Voice Services: The company offers voice service plans using an interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology that provide either usage-based or unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling and include options for international calling plans, voicemail, voicemail transcriptions, text messaging, caller ID and call waiting. For customers with its high-speed Internet services, its voice services also provide customers with the ability to access and manage voicemail, text messaging, and other account features through XFINITY.net or by using its mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Business Services: The company offers its cable services to small (approximately 20 employees) and medium-sized (approximately 500 employees) businesses (business services). In addition to the features provided to its residential cable services customers, its services for business customers include a Website hosting service, an interactive tool that allows customers to share, coordinate and store documents online, hosted voice services using cloud network servers, a business directory listing, and the added capacity for multiple phone lines that meet the needs of its business customers. The company offers advanced voice services and metro Ethernet network services. The company also provides cellular backhaul services to mobile network operators, which help its customers manage continued growth in demand for network bandwidth. Advertising As part of its distribution agreements with cable networks, the company generally receives an allocation of scheduled advertising time on the cable networks that the company may sell to local, regional and national advertisers. Other Revenue Sources The company receives revenue related to cable franchise and other regulatory fees. It also receives revenue related to its digital media center, commissions from electronic retailing networks, and fees from other newer services, such as its home security and automation services and expanded technical support services. Its home security and automation offering provides home monitoring services to its customers, as well as the ability to manage other functions within the home, such as lighting and climate control, through XFINITY.net or its mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Sales and Marketing The company offers its services directly to residential and business customers through its call centers, door-to-door selling, direct mail advertising, television advertising, Internet advertising, local media advertising, telemarketing, and retail outlets. It markets its cable services both individually and as bundled services. In addition, in 2012, Verizon Wireless became an agent to sell its cable services in many of the markets in which it provides its cable services. CABLE NETWORKS This segment consists of a portfolio of 15 national cable networks, 11 regional sports and news networks, various international channels, its cable television production studio, and its related digital media properties, which are primarily brand-aligned and other Websites. The company’s 11 regional sports and news networks serve a combined 39 million subscribers across the United States, including key markets, such as Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco. It markets and distributes its cable network programming in the United States and internationally to multichannel video providers, as well as to digital distributors, such as Netflix and iTunes. These distributors may exhibit its content on television, including video on demand and pay-per-view, online and through mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. The company’s cable networks produce their own programs or acquire programming rights from third parties. Its Cable Networks segment includes its production studio, Universal Cable Productions,