Comcast racks up nearly 1 million 'likes' on Facebook

Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Cox Communications and other pay TV providers are stepping up efforts to use Facebook to market new services to subscribers, luring customers with promotions ranging from free Apple iPads to 3DTVs.

Comcast is among those putting efforts into Facebook.

More than 991,000 Facebook users "like" Comcast's Xfinity brand, meaning they have used Facebook's like feature to subscribe to updates about Xfinity from the cable MSO in their news feeds. Visitors to Comcast's Xfinity page on Friday will see a pitch for its "31 days of wintertaiment" promotion. The cable MSO is giving away prizes ranging from free movie tickets through Fandango to a 55-inch LED-3D HDTV.

Since July, Time Warner Cable has been using an iPad giveway promotion on its Facebook page to attract subscribers. As of Friday, more than 234,000 Facebook users said they like Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable has been using the Facebook page to give away one free iPad to Facebook users each month.

Cable operators are also using Facebook in an effort to increase sales of video-on-demand movies. In October, In Demand, the pay-per-view distributor that is backed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR), Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) and other operators, launched a Movies On Demand app on Facebook. The app lets Facebook users qualify for daily prizes of $5 in "cable cash" that can be used to rent VOD movies.

Cox Communications is also using Facebook to raise money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The company is running a "Holiday Digeez Snow Globe" campaign which allows its Facebook fans to place their favorite photos in a digital snow globe that they can share with other friends. Cox said it'll donate $1 to the organization for each snow globe created, or up to $10,000.

While most cable marketing efforts involving Facebook are focused on driving users to corporate pages, pay TV providers could soon use Facebook to run paid ads. The top social network plans to begin running sponsored items in the newsfeeds of its users next year.

For more:
- see Comcast's Facebook page
- see Time Warner Cable's Facebook page
- see news release from Cox

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