Woman would you fix your tie, please . David weople wouldnt recognize me if my tie was fixed, but ok. Just leave it this way. All right. I dont consider myself a journalist, and nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i have a day job of ui running a private eqty firm. How do you define leadership . At is it that makes somebody tick . When you graduated from college in 1981, you went tpe the university osylvania. You then joined the company your father had started, comcast. At that time, it was a relatively small company. Did you everagin your wildest ation, think it would become the leading company thats its become in the Telecommunications Area . Brian we had about 20 million inevenues that year, and my father, when asked that question for many, many years later used to say, of course. And the reality is, of course, no way did either of us dream that we would be lucky enough to be comcast nbc universal, sitting here wh the kind of wonderful products and company we have. And i pinch myself every day. David ever say to your father, i dont really want to join the company. I might want to do something else. What propeou to want to jn this company . Brian well, i thought about that. I just always wanted to work for my dad. s he used to be in the melt and suspender business way back before he started comcast, mens cologne. We used to play with the cologne growing up as kids, and he would have a passion about it. He never pushed to me, even a little bit, to want to work for the company. Brian well, he got out of the navy. Was living in philadelphia, met my mom. They got married. They were married 72 years until heassed away a couple ars ago. He was very interested in business. Hool. And he was an entrepreneur, made golf club putters. He went into muzak, marketing. To he worked for sebenton in advertising. So he liked the marketing and Advertising Products side. And on you know, he got into mens cologne, e and he just loved smell and the marketing aspect. And then the same with a product, like a belt or a suspender. Technology came along, and he got himself convinced that sansabelt slacks, that is polyester pants without belts, would be the technology that could put him out of business, so he sold his business. He was Walking Around philadelphia, appantly, 1963, and a y came up to him and id, ralph, i have a got a new venture for you. You ought to buy a commsiity antenna tele system in tupelo, mississippi. And as he told the story, he said, wheres tupelo and what is Community Antenna television . And the answer was, the birthplace of elvis presley. And in tupelo, they couldnt get cbs from memphis it was a valley town so they put up a big antenna on the top of a mountain and ran a Community Antenna, catv, and those were the early roots of cable television. David televisn n was for free iose days. Now you had to pay for itpi in tupelo, mississ so was that hard to convince people to pay for television . N what he liked about the business was the subscription nature. So in belts or cologne or many other businesses he had been in, you have a product, you sell it, if you get sick next month, youre outf business. In our business, and what he liked about recurring revenue, is you have to go borrow a lot of money, build it, and hope they will come, then you have a recurring business that wou then have a base k from. David where did the name comcast come from . Brian great question. It doesnt get askvery of. It is amazing that in 1963, being a Community Antenna television company, mcast. Eamed up the name co com was communications, cast was broadcasting, and we were going to merge and be in the future of communications and broadcasting, so he was very visionary in that respect. David you buy the cable franchise in b tupelo, mississippi. How much did he pay for that . N i think a few hundred thousand dollars. David a few hundred thousand dollars, ok. And whate do after that . He started buying other franchises like that . Brian yes. So, the nextdoor town was meridian. And he ould go down to tupelo h. He had a philosophy of decentralized management, in that you would have a local manager, and they should feel like they own the business, so the was a general manager of tupelo. And then they went and bought meridian. Then one day he got into michigan, another day, w jersey and pennsylvania. And we started buying other operators. And as the business evolved through the eighties, one day, it was not injust a valley town buss and a rural business. Espn and hbo and cnn came along. Bait was suburban and and so there were 30,000 cable franchises awarded, and eventually, they needed to consolidate to be more like a tv business or phone business, where you had Larger Service areas, and thats when comcast really stepped on the pedal. David so in the early eighties, thanchises were being awarded around the country as cable tv became more popular because, as you mentioned, so did you compete to buy those, or did you buy them from people who already won their franchise . Brian a little bit of bot there was franchising wars was one era. That got aittle crazy. And my dad had incredible integrity, be and one of the, eve, hallmarks of comcast was live up to what you say you gonna do as best as you possibly can. People started to promise crazy things to win a franchise. Well pltrees. Well control your traffic lights. Well pay more mey. And it was not economic, so we stopped. And some companithen went bk and had to break their promises. Comcast really tried not to ever have put oursves in that position. Second phase, once they were all awaed, or most were awarded, some people ran out of mey, couldnt bui them, or wanted to sell, and we probaught more Cable Systems than almost anyby. Maybe there we one or two others who were consolidators. David so in the early days, who were the lears . You were not the leader in number in those days. Brian no, we were one of maybe number 18, 15. Alone was very aggressive. David so cci with john malone, and the was warneramex. Brian yeah, so go back to gus hauser and drew lewis. Warner under steve ross in the old warneramex days. There wereteleprompter was a huge company, eventually got bought by westinghoe. There was continental cable, cox cable, many other david how did you get the financing to buy all these . Where did the money come from . It couldnt come from the cologne and belt business, right . Brian well, two things. One, we went public in 1972. Beafre that, and even r that our chief Financial Officer who wavice chairman of the company for a long time after that, julian brodsky, was very creative financi with my dad. So they tried limited partnerships, Master Limited partnerships, separate public subsidiaries. Insurance Companies Made fixed loans that had never been done. Euro converts. So they tried many different pools of capital. My dad had the foresight to know f we were going to achieve the longterm goal, we needed to issue more stock. Anofso we had two classes tock, and that allowed us to think for the long term. And weve ised oillions of dollastock in addition to billion david so in 1972, if i had bough stock, what would i be brian if you had bought 1,000 shares, it came public at 7, went down to . 25, i think, at the alltime low, that is another story, you would have over 11 million today, and 18 plus compounded return for 45 years. If you put the same 7,000 in the s p 500, you would have just over half a million, with about a 10 return. David thats not bad. Brian not bad. David ok, so when you joined the company, did he say, you start at the bottom and work your way up . Or did he say you could start at number two . Brian well, that is maybe what i wanted to happen. , he definitely put me through a wonderful in kind of de facto tra without either of us really ever talkint it that way. So one summer, i climbed polesn and learned to be installer. Had real Trouble Holding the ladder because i etty weak and 15 years old. Another summer, i sold doortodoor hbo subscriptions and cable subscrtions it was brandnewin west moreland, pennsylvania. Another summer, i went and sold muzak, which was a business comcast was in at the time, installing and selling. David right. Brian so when i got out of wharton school, undergrad, i was like a fince major, and i was like, well, lets go and do deals. He said, no, move to trenton, new jersey. I never worked in cable. That was one of my later businesses in life. My dad was in his forties when he started comcast, which is a great lesson for people. If you have not found your thing yet and yo40 yearsld, it is not too late. And many people think it is way too late. And he said, but i will never know this business. Why dont you learn it as we, from the bottom ery job . So i moved to trenton and learned the billing system, worked the counter when customers paid their bill, and when the truck delivered e new cable boxes, it was a brandnew system in trenton, you know, wed get out and everybodyd roll up thr sleeves and unload the warehouse. So i had the pleasure of doing all the jobs, and something for me just clicked. I loved the business, i love being around people, and i loved being in management at a young age. B david when you are iness with your father, do you call him in front of other people dad, or do you say oulph, or what yo . Brian i called him ralph. When he had all his grandkids, he had all the grandkids call him ralph. One of the greau things he did for myghter, who has now just had her own child a few wes ago, he said, every kid learns the wd no. At is one of the first words they learn. So he got ground with all the little grandbabies and would go like this and said, yes, yes. And one of the Amazing Things my wife and i enjoyed with my dad, and i think my siblings did and my mom, is his positive attitude about life. And it came out for all the employees. He had a yes attitude. David you became an employee in 1981 when you joined, but you became the ceo in 19 brian we did not use that title between my dad and myself. 1990, i became the president. Yeah, i was about 30 years old. Dand did anybody say, well, is he really ready to be president yet . Brian everylfdy, including my but i was very eager to having worked for many yrs, half a dozen years in different jobs in trenton, in flint, michigan, in dallas, in pittsburgh, and then trenton again, back in philadelphia, then in the corporate side in finance my dad was still active, but he was 40 years older than i was. So i was 30, he was 70, and he wanted to begin continuity without an abrupt change, so we worked as partners really from then on until he died. David people like products of lets say amazon, or they like the products of apy e, or they like the products of starbucks, land they therefore tend e the companies. Why do you think comcast and other Cable Companies are not that wellliked, unlike other Companies Whose products are popular and the companies are liked . Brn wel it is a great question. Television used to bfree, annow most americans are paying a lot of money for it. And every year, it can get more eensive. And that is the sum total of sports and the cost of actors, and the cost of many, many more channels, high definition, technical capabilities, and if we are passing all of on those increases that we have experienced, no one remembers that. So that is partly why i think it is an industry issue, but that is not a good answer. So what we set about at comcast was to not accept that and to try to find a way to emulate some of the companies you just referenced who have a lot of goodwill. And so we thought thatcty making our probetter. We changed the name of the company to xfinity. We came up with a product called x1. S in development. We are building a Technology Center here in philadelphia. And we are trying to pivot the ole company to have a Rapid Deployment of new products that delight and surprise you all the time. Back that up with advertising and messaging and understanding by the consumer of what it is you get, and then the link that was missing, after we achieved that with some of our products was service showing up on time, getting it right the first time, having the network be reliable. David mso you ever have probith your cable . Brian sure. Once in a while. David and what do you do . L you call somebody, cur office, what do you do . Brian well, you know, i use it as a lg experience, firsof all. We are constantly trying to improve and have a vs cycle of repair and improvement. If my cable is out, i use my app. I then will go back and see how many customers are affected. And as a culture i bmaieve we have improveively, but we have a ways to go. David but is it intimidating for the cable repairman to come to your house, you think . They know they better get it right . Or they know it is y . Brian hopefully a little bit of both, but ultimately i try not to get so much different treatment that its touch with what our customers are experiencing, but i am sure there is some of that happening. So cable tv blossomed in the eighties and nineties, and you grew to 20some million customers, and then at some point, broadband came along. In effect, you had built cables in everybodys homes, then you realiosd you could use cables for Internet Access as well. When did it dawn on you that you can actually sell more than cable tv to those brian there was an aha moment on that, and that was a meeng in seattle of groupng that we formed with other Cable Companies called cablelabs. We went to see intel, oracle, and microsoft. And while we were at microsoft, bill gat talking about someday the data busaliness for you guys will be bigger than your television siness. I said to bill, would you consider investing in our industr because were putting all of these fiber optics, this new thing no ofe had really hear wall street hated it. Our stocks were low. We were spending capital. This is onhose cycles where you cannot always know the answer, but yoldfeel like you shnvest and hope that it will work. And he said, i think fiber will change the game for you. How can i help . Bi said, why dont y a percentage of the room . And then evebody laughed. And i said, ok, just buy comcast. He put 1 billion from microsoft into comcast, nonvoti stock, no board seat, no microsoft products. David what kind of return did he get on that 1 billion . Brian . And it started the broadband wa that have been the beneficiary by consumers the last 20 years. David areorried that maybe people will say, i dont want to buy my cable tv at all. Ill get everything through the internet . Ve . Brian first of all, that reality is happening. We have se it coming. The other aha moment for me was another great leader, steve jobs, who we were visiting, trying to see if we could collaborate with apple a decade ago. He said, why dont yoouput wifi in allcable boxes . David and you said, what is wifi . Brian i went, what is wifi . Else. Because it was before anybody and now we have more wifi than any company in america and we have the fastest wifi. David you bought from ge nbc universal. Was that something that was natural for you to do . Were you worlded that maybe you sht be in the content business . Brian well, there were people who had that worry. We had a dream that the perfect company, if you could create it from scratch, would be in the distribution, but also in content. Both were good businesses. They were kind of symbiotic. So we had gotten to a certain scale, and scale matters. We had dabbled in content. We owned the golf channel. We owned e entertainment. We had some regional sportsetworks. And along came the recession of 2008, 2009 and the financial crisis. To sell nbc universal. We had been knocking on the door for a decade. And one day, they said ok, and we jumped at it. Daviho and things like ywood studios, sometimes people who own Hollywood Studios like to go out and hang out with the stars. That is not you . Brian tt is not really me. I care abo movies, but i have never been on a movie set. David now there is a concept called Net Neutrality, which 99 of americans punbably dont fullrstand. Can you explain what Net Neutrality is and why it is such a big deal . Brian to me, it can also be called regulation. And so, what do i think we stand for . Y what weve tried to om thday bill gates helped us with the idea of the iernet was that you could go anywhere you wanted and that you could do so without being slowed down or delayed, or ithe case of privacy, someone knowing your behavior ia a way you dont. And how do you have a set of rules that gives you,the con, that confidence and the certainty, an at the same time, allot in innovation as new applications come along . And we have always said we stand for certain principles. Those principles were codified by the fcc. And then the court sa the fcc didnt have authority to codify those principles. So another fcc came along and said here is another way to do it. Ts put it under someth, which is a Regulatory Regime designed for the phone system back in the 19ons. And we d agree with that. And that can get bundled in a phrase, Net Neutrality. And oftentimes people say, oh, you are against Net Neutrality. That is not the case at all. David you must go to washington from time to time k to legistors or other people, and is that a painful part of your job . Brian i like advocating for comcast. I am passionatt our company and our beliefs. I think we represent sort of what the American Dream is allbout. You start from literally tupelo, mississippi anno business, and you take risk capital. We have never had a guaranteed rate of return, like a phone company. Weve borrowed 60 billion to build the company. No one says we will be here in 50 more years. We are 50plus years old. And we he created 150,00jobs, and they are all, mostly, 90 , 95 here in america. So from time to time, depending where the pendulum is going, there are proposed things that are going to have real implications, and you try to articulate and advocate for that. At weve been heavily reg business, at least from my perspective, since the beginning. David you have cable. You also have broadcast channels. You have movies. How doave time to watch all the things that your company is producing . Brian well, we grew up in this business. When i started back in 1981, they were just coming out with cable channels. And i was very lucky when ted turner called me up and asked would i come on his board. I think i was in my late twenties, maybe early thirties. I was the youngest person on the board. Anw him literally change the world with cnn on a new network, tnt, and taking the mgm library and building new channels cartoon network. So i always thought well, someday, it would be nice if comcast could help do that as we continue so how do i have the time . Well, i dont see everything we do. I try to see some of a lot of what we do. David if you see something you dont like, do you cem up or are you just kind of brian no. I have a point of view, but i also know what i cand what i shouldnt do. And i try to have some discipline on that. But i sometimes just share opinions, but i think they we have some of the best professionals. David on technology, right now, you have to be do you personally review all the new Technology Inventions . Brian we are building a new Technology Center, which i am very involved in and excited about, but i cant do every inventn. But since it comes down to one Remote Control and one guide, get fairly involved and see things before they come out, try to help e team. David what gives you the greatest pleasure in the job you have . T answer changes over time. It has notthe same old thing my whole life. Today, i mean, sadly, my dad is not here, so there was a wonderful moment th went for a long, ng time, and we were so lucky. Today, we are, as a leader, trying to figure out where this industry is going, and that dynamic change of technology and innovation in things like Artificial Intelligence and the cloud and the competition, erwhich has never been gre stimulates you. And overand trying to think through how to build value for shareholders. David in college, you were a squash player. And you weua an allamerican player. Brian i love the sport. Ind the best players he world, which i never was close, are super and superb athletes, and as good as any athletes, i think,n any sport. Anwhen i got to penn, had a squash coach who was the opposite of my dad. I have alwcos said maybe the or third most influential person in my life, one of the top david is coach malloy. Brian coachalloy. And he was a marine, or an exmarine. And he really drilled into me hard work, winning strategy, tactics, and i went on and played a great run in squa e internationally after college. Mp david so now you e still at the maccabiah games. You have won the gold medal and silv medal. And you are now going to play again there . Brian my children have both done it, my two daugers. And my son saido lets you and t, dad. So we are going to go this summer to israel anete one more time. It will be my sixth time. I proposed to my wife on one of the trips. Its hadl significant meaning in my life to be able to compete, represent our country, be a jewish athlete, and at te time, share my family experiences, as we have all played the sport and had a lot of fun with it. David well, you are now in your fifties. To is it hard to get hape to play in maccabiah games when you are in your fifties . Brian i was retired for about 10 years, and it is very hard. That is the short answer. Every ridy part of mine hurts t now from training, but it gives you a purpose. I guess i like goals. It is very similar to comcast. But it is fun to try. Brian so ive been asked that question, the first part of that question, for sure es a lot of other fami to me, it is a really clear answer. You should do ou want to do with your life, not what your parent wants you to do with your life. And for me and my family, thats how you end up having a happier life and if its something you want to try out, great. It comes with the presumption that youre not that good. You only got there because, so it is a higher burden. Anas i have talked to own kids, as they figure out their lives, there are different answers to that question. David what are yourreat philanthropic interests . Brian well, weve just made a really cool involvement with the cldrens hospital of philadelphia here. We are going to do a Genetics Center at philadelphias Childrens Hospital, arguably the number e Childrens Hospital in the world. So as Genetics Technology comes along and research, can they continue that leadership . So we created a genetics cenr. We have been involved in some of the arts. My wife chred the building of e new barnes in philadelphia, something really special for this city. Ly it is dr. Barnes collection, the best impressionist collection outside the louvre in paris. And for philadelphia, it really gave it some ta additional worldclassture. David your father was in the company for a long t ie. You could do this another 20 or 30 years. Is this what you intend to do forest of your professional career . Brian i love what i do. And it is hard to imagine something else. But i also recognize that you have got to keep the company fresh, and so we will take it one day at a time. 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