Watch Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at the Web 2.0 Summit 09

On Tuesday Jenn posted about Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ conversation with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit ‘09. While the conversation wasn’t live streamed it has been posted to YouTube and I’ve embedded the 43 minute interview above for your viewing pleasure. Here are some highlights of what Brian and John discussed (be sure to watch until the end because John opens it up to questions from the audience):

• Brian points out that while many people suggest that the US is behind the rest of the world in broadband the fact is that we have the same, if not better, infrastructure here in the states. Comcast has spent $5 billion on infrastructure this year alone to roll out, amongst other things, DOCSIS 3.0 (which we also call wideband). The real question is why more people aren’t taking advantage of the great broadband options currently available to them (Brian suggests a few reasons).
• Online video was a big topic of discussion, and Brian said that online video is Comcast’s friend, not our foe. That served as a great segue into showing off On Demand Online (watch the video to see the beta in action, but keep in mind that the interface will change when it is rolled out to all of our customers at the end of this year). The idea behind On Demand Online is simple: you’re already paying for access to great shows from HBO and Starz (to name a couple of networks), why can’t you watch those shows online? Thanks to authentication (which tells us who you are) and entitlement (how we know what is part of your cable subscription) we’re bringing content to the web and keeping both customers (that’s you) and content producers (the networks, writer, actors, and other people who work hard to keep us entertained) happy.

That’s just a couple of points I wanted to give special attention to, watch the entire wide ranging conversation for yourself and see what Brian, John, and the audience had to say.