Philadelphia-based Comcast, the No. 1 cable provider with more than 22 million subscribers in the United States, had revenue of $18.3 billion in 2003, of which $50 million is derived from porn each year, the groups say.
The anti-porn coalition says Comcast stands to gain “tens of millions of dollars” in tax breaks from Philadelphia and the state over the next 15 years through an obscure government program called the Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone. Comcast wants to build an office building in downtown Philadelphia partly using the zoning tax breaks.
"If Comcast is going to get a multimillion-dollar per-year tax break, certainly they can afford not to deal in the pornography business," William Devlin, founder of Urban Family, told XBiz on Wednesday.
Comcast official Jeff Ellis did not immediately comment on the matter to XBiz.
The members of the coalition consist of Devlin’s group, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, Pennsylvanians Against Pornography, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania and Survivors and Victims Empowered.
Devlin said the group is going to push state senators to postpone Comcast's tax-break deal from going through until programming changes are made.
"The Pennsylvania state Senate should not give tax breaks to a company whose programming increases the rate of domestic violence in the United States," he said.
Devlin, who said that Comcast has “contributed to the decline of American culture” with its programming, noted that for the month of June, it offers more than 15 pornographic shows each day, including "Extreme Behavior," "Wicked Sex Party 5," "Barely Legal #45" and "Best Butt in the West #6."
"If Comcast wants a [tax break], they should pull the porn," Devlin said.
