Comcast SuperBowl Porn: Foul Play Involved?

It was the “oops” heard ’round the world, or at least in Arizona.

Comcast has apologized to Tucson-area customers over a 30-second porn interruption during the Super Bowl. The Philadelphia-based cable company issued a brief statement Monday saying the company is “mortified” and is conducting a thorough investigation.

Comcast SuperBowl Porn

Comcast now believes that the pornography clip that interrupted its broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII Sunday night was the result of foul play, a company spokeswoman said Monday morning.

“Our initial investigation suggests this was an isolated malicious act,” spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said in a statement emailed to the Star. “We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interruption and we apologize to our customers. We are conducting a thorough investigation to determine how this happened.”

It is still unclear how many viewers were affected by the clip, which lasted about 30 seconds, and featured full male nudity, Maslyn said.

Comcast is Southern Arizona’s second-largest cable subscriber, with more than 80,000 customers in unincorporated Pima County, Marana and Oro Valley.

The interruption was only seen by Comcast subscribers who received a standard definition signal, Maslyn said, while those who watched the game on high-definition televisions were not affected.

Comcast is working on a plan to compensate customers, but nothing has been set in stone, Maslyn said.
The pornography clip was from Shorteez, an adult cable television channel.

The Star newsroom was flooded with calls from irate viewers who said that the porn cut into the game with less than three minutes left to play, just after Arizona Cardinals player Larry Fitzgerald scored on a touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to put the team in the lead.

Callers said that the clip showed a woman unzipping a man’s pants, followed by a graphic act between the two.

The Super Bowl was being shown locally on KVOA. The station sends its signals — both standard definition and high definition — to Cox Communcations, which then sends the signals to Comcast, station president Gary Nielsen said.

KVOA’s signal didn’t have porn on it when the station sent it over to Comcast, Nielsen said. He said his station has received no complaints from viewers who watched the game on Cox, on satellite providers such as DirecTV or Dish Network or from people who saw it through an over-the-air signal.

“This did not emanate from us,” Nielsen said. “We are dismayed that this had to happen.”

The porn clip was actually the second interruption Comcast’s standard definition subscribers saw, Maslyn said. A few minutes earlier, a short clip showing the closing credits of a movie on another adult channel, Club Jenna, were shown.

Both Club Jenna and Shorteez are channels offered by Spice Entertainment, according to the Playboy TV Networks web site.

Comcast has set up an e-mail account to take feedback from concerned customers.

The address is comcasttucsonfeedback@gmail.com.

Customers can also call 744-1900, though the Star newsroom received several calls Monday morning reporting they could not get through to Comcast by phone.

UPDATE: To “make up” for the inconvenience, Comcast is sending out $10 credits to affected subscribers who saw the porn clip. Wow, that should just about take care of everything.