Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ralph Roberts, Comcast Founder, Dies at 95

Comcast Corp founder and prominent cable industry executive Ralph Roberts died on Thursday at the age of 95, the company said.

Roberts, who set up Comcast after he bought a small cable television operator in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1963, died of natural causes in Philadelphia, Comcast said in a statement.

From selling ads to golf clubs and men’s accesories in his early years, Roberts ambitiously ventured into America’s fledgling cable industry. He led Comcast from its humble beginnings to a $150 billion media conglomerate.

Roberts, who was chairman emeritus of Comcast’s board, had spent more than five decades at the company.

“Ralph was a born entrepreneur, a visionary businessman, a philanthropist and a wonderful human being,” the company said in a statement.

After about a decade of building out cable networks and signing up subscribers, Comcast went public on the Nasdaq under Roberts’ helm in 1972.

A sharply-dressed businessman, who often donned tailored suits and bow ties, Roberts was a dogged deal maker. In 1986, he led the acquisition of a 26 percent stake in Group W Cable expanding its customer base to more than a million.

The purchase of AT&T Broadband, the cable service of telephone giant AT&T Inc, for $30 billion in 2001, catapulted Comcast into the No. 1 U.S. cable TV operator with more than 21 million subscribers.

His son, Brian Roberts, took on the top post at Comcast in 2002 and has since been its CEO. The Roberts family forayed into the media business by acquiring NBC Universal that includes broadcast, cable, movie studio and theme park businesses.

“He has left a lasting legacy on the communications landscape of America,” U.S Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement.

After a slew of acquisitions over the years, Comcast’s plan to buy its rival Time Warner Cable was upset by regulatory opposition in April.

“He exemplified the value of working hard and treating others with kindness and respect,” TWC CEO Rob Marcus said in a statement. “His influence has extended far beyond Comcast and cable.”

Roberts is survived by Suzanne Roberts, his wife of more than 70 years, four children and eight grandchildren.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.