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Comcast Apologizes For Super Bowl Porn Glitch
DrinkDr.Pepper writes "Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, with 3 minutes to go in the game, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown, seen by an unknown number of Comcast customers in Tucson, Arizona who were watching the game in standard definition. Comcast has apologized (they used the word 'mortified') and is issuing a $10 credit to any customer who claims to have been impacted. Various news accounts suggest that the incident was a malicious act, but no one knows how it was done or by whom."
Ok, watch the clip in question here...
The game was as exciting as it gets. Even my sisters-in-law who don't like football were on the edge of their seats. It was a good time.
Here is it, you pervert! NSFW! (obviously) http://comcastsuperbowlporn.com/cache/page2.html#video
I work for a CATV operator, and my desk is 200 feet from the headend. There is no way that could have been a glitch. The real question is was it a malicious or ignorant act of an employee. Regardless, the unemployment rate just went up in Tucson.
It could easily have been a glitch that didn't require direct human intervention.
Reasonable providers (read those that aren't Comcast) will separate adult and non-adult programming onto different QAMs. This minimizes exposure to issues with adult-content.
I've seen a QAM broadcast programming from the wrong PID when the original PID was interrupted. It's not supposed to happen, but it does.
Maybe you should tell your family this isn't the Victorian era anymore.
I love when stuff like this happens. In the past, there have been incidents such as when someone switched over a feed of Jeopardy to the Playboy Channel. Other notable incidents:
Max Headroom Incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs
HBO "Captain Midnight" incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFlMHCdYXLM
From FCC (emphasis added):
Do the FCC's rules apply to cable and satellite programming?
In the past, the FCC has enforced the indecency and profanity prohibitions only against conventional broadcast services, not against subscription programming services such as cable and satellite. However, the prohibition against obscene programming applies to subscription programming services at all times.
The definition of "obscene" from the same FCC page:
What makes material "obscene?"
Obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment and broadcasters are prohibited, by statute and regulation, from airing obscene programming at any time. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, to be obscene, material must meet a three-prong test: (1) an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest (i.e., material having a tendency to excite lustful thoughts); (2) the material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and (3) the material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. The Supreme Court has indicated that this test is designed to cover hard-core pornography.
So basically, something on a subscription service must: 1) make the average soccer mom get hot, 2) show hardcore porn or is so hateful that it makes everyone uncomfortable, 3) exist only to be offensive...then the commish goes after them.
Direct link. Otherwise I just get told I don't have the proper plug-in. Not very interesting porn, though.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
I'm pretty sure the FCC can't fine Comcast, since it isn't public broadcasting, and therefore isn't bound by the decency rules. It's a completely different situation. And although you may hate the cable company, I don't see how that's relevant.
Reasonable providers (read those that aren't Comcast) will separate adult and non-adult programming onto different QAMs.
Here is where the problem could have occured:
1) Video input problem: MSO Satellite Radio tuned to wrong channel. Doubtful because of authentication / encryption. This is more likely if the east coast/west coast feed of the same provider got swapped. Also if the MSO was using an over-the-air TV receiver, that of course can't happen. If the MSO gets a video fiber from the TV station, that might be a fiber carrier routing screw up.
2) Video router misconfiguration: Ff the satellite radio outputs baseband video, it may go through a video crosspoint swtich (they call them "routers"). The wrong crosspoints between the satellite radios and the modulators (analog tier) or encoders (digital tier)
3) Multiplexer/CherryPicker misconfiguration: On the digital tier, MPEG-2 programs are multiplexed together into a QAM. It is possible there was a brief misconfiguration.
Big question - did this happen on the Comcast SD digital tier, HD digital tier, the analog tier, or some combination? If it was both analog and digital SD, I would suspect a video router crosspoint misconfiguration. If it was just digital SD or digital HD, I would suspect a multiplexer misconfiguration.
In Nevada you can have sex with a 14 year old if you're 35
huh?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Homosexual taboos are documented as going way, way back. Documentation of the taboo appears in ancient Hebrew religious texts, for example. It is *not* a recent development in human history. This is not the same as saying it was shared by every ancient society (which is the mistake you are making).
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Funny enough, the commercial must have worked, because guess where the guy bought the domain:
% whois ComcastSuperBowlPorn.com
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain Name: COMCASTSUPERBOWLPORN.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com/
Name Server: DNS66-1.NEXCESS.NET
Name Server: DNS66-2.NEXCESS.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 01-feb-2009
Creation Date: 01-feb-2009
Expiration Date: 01-feb-2010
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:46:33 EST
Actually, this is basically true anytime. If you complain to your cable company and threaten to cancel they will almost always move you to a cheaper rate (assuming you're not on the cheapest introductory rate). They make money off a customer paying $70/month (for cable and internet) and those who pay $100/month. Obviously, they prefer the ones who pay them more. However, they realize that they're better off with a customer paying $70/month than having no customer at all. You just have to be willing to say you want to cancel your account, and either pull the trigger when needed, or hang up before you do.
Phil
No. Among other reasons why this can't be the case, VoD programming is inserted at the node/neighborhood level, where nodes only serve a couple hundred people at most. If the whole city saw it, the feed came all the way from the top.