Ken Li from Reuters and I were the only reporters to meet with Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) chairman and CEO Brian Roberts just after his CES keynote. He brushed off a question from Ken about the disconnect between what Comcast is doing and how the market sees the company, explaining: “Today’s not a day when we talk about the markets and stuff like that. Let me stick to what we just did ... We had a good year last but clearly there’s more competition, the economy, but we’ve got a great road map. We signed up to do this probably six months ago; we weren’t ready to do this a year ago. A year ago we wouldn’t have had tru2way, Docsis 3.0. We decided—one of the interesting decisions putting the presentation together was what time period do we talk about. This quarter? Is it ten years blue sky? We decided to talk about things that were ‘08 and maybe a year or two beyond that. So tru2way in ‘08, a thousand HD choices in ‘08, Docsis 3.0 in millions of homes in ‘08 and here’s Project Infinity.” More after the jump.

(Dealing with the market was left to CFO Michael Angelakis at Citi Media the next day.)

But when your company is getting knocked for customer service when it comes to the basics, how do you make sure your system can handle all the questions from people freaking out over the new stuff? Roberts: “It was clearly part of the message today, clearly put in to say you can have all these great products but you have to deliver a great experience—and I think we do for the vast majority—but with 300 million interactions, there are going to be times. One of our core initiatives is to improve and to make that service better than it’s ever been in the past and I think we can do that.” (Keep in mind that back when digital cable first made the scene, one of the top reasons people canceled was they didn’t know how to find their favorite channels. Neat technology doesn’t matter if people can’t use it.)

Fancast: The keynote wasn’t the end of the messaging for Comcast. Downstairs, execs crowded into a small room to show off some of the new products and services. Amy Banse, president of Comcast Interactive Media, and Liz Schimmel, SVP-content development, walked me through the new Fancast. (That’s Banse on the far left in the picture above, with the CIM/Fancast team that made it to CES—and the Conchords.) Fancast is a combination programming guide, deep database and TV set with various companion tools. Banse describes Fancast itself as a tool: “If it’s out there, we’ll find it for you.” Fancast operates best with personalization and repeated use, building preferences on a not-too-invasive anonymous profile. The profile can skipped and the site will still be of use. (One limitation: like all guides I’ve seen, Fancast assumes you only have one TV provider so households with more than one have to choose.) One of the flashier tools is Six Degrees, which lets users careen from connection to connections, often winding up in odd spots. Unfortunately, the app doesn’t remember where you’ve been so if you wander too far, you have to start from scratch. Mobile applications will start to roll out this year, Schimmel said.

So far, the streaming video directory on Fancast has no branding beyond the name of a show until you get to the player. (This didn’t go over well with some of the network execs I spoke with at CES.) The theory is people are looking for shows, not networks.

GuideWorks: I also saw a demo of the new EPG—oops, supposed to call it a “navigator” now—from Comcast-Gemstar-TV Guide JV GuideWorks. At this point, I cannot come close to counting the number of times I’ve been shown electronic guides through the multichannel universe, some from Comcast and TV Guide. This one, as demoed by Gerard Kunkel, president of GuideWorks and SVP-user experience of Comcast, shares some features with Fancast, including the “Six Degrees” app to explore connections. It has flip cards that show more info about a movie or the actors in a TV show, operated from the remote. It’s designed for 16:9 aspect ratio but can be used on others. The guide, scheduled for Q109 deployment, is a tru2way app; for instance, it will be part of the retail Funai cable-card-ready set-top box. Otherwise, cable operators would have to sign up for it in order for most non-Comcast users to use it.

Sidenote: I rode down the escalator with Jemaine of the Conchords after their appearance at the end of Roberts’ keynote. When I asked if this was the strangest group they’d performed for, he said, no, that would be a cricket club in Wellington, New Zealand.