Comcast Market
Jenifer Reynolds
Southern New Hampshire University
ECO-201

Cost of Production
Cost of production continues to rise for the telecommunications industry. One cost that increases annually are the programming costs. Programming costs are fees that networks charge cable providers so that they may air their channels. “Comcast programming cost made up 38% of its cable communication division total operating cost in 2014.” (Sheffer, 2015) “Today about 45 cents of every dollar of your monthly bill for cable television goes to the programmers whose channels we carry.” (WOW, n.d.) For consumers to receive these channels, Comcast needs to provide infrastructure. Infrastructure is a large portion of costs of cable services. “A total of $216 billion was spent on infrastructure from 1996-2013.” (Sheffer, 2013) There are other cost cable companies incur cost of service and advertising cost. Comcast passes a portion of these cost to their cable subscribers. Last year alone, Comcast’s gross total profits were over 13 million dollars.
Comcast’s fixed cost remain constant regardless of the volume of services they provide. Fixed costs include; infrastructure (placement of wire), manager’s salaries and state and federal taxes. However, variable costs fluctuate with the volume of services provided. Examples of variable costs are cost of service and service products. Fixed cost does not influence product decisions, whereas product decisions greatly influence variable costs. So as the demand in services fluctuate, variable cost are adjusted accordingly to offset the cost of services and products thereby maximizing profits.

Overall Market There are 85 cable and satellite providers throughout the United States. The top ten suppliers of the cable industry are shown in the graph below.

Comcast has come a long way since their start in 1963 with