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Comcast Corp. already produces movies, television shows and national and local news programs while operating theme parks and the largest pay-TV system in the U.S.

And now, with one bold stroke, the Philadelphia conglomerate could dominate the flow of information and entertainment into American homes with historically unprecedented power.

Comcast's proposed $45.2-billion takeover of Time Warner Cable would allow it to provide television, telephone and Internet service and even home security systems to nearly 30 million homes across the country.

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The company's reach would encompass the nation's largest markets, among them Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. By taking over Time Warner Cable's nearly 1.8 million Southern California customers, Comcast would become the region's dominant pay TV operator.

The audacious move comes just three years after Comcast took control of media giant NBCUniversal in a deal that was valued at more than $30 billion. It continues the half-century quest of Pennsylvania's Roberts family to build the nation's preeminent media company.

Six decades ago, Comcast founder Ralph J. Roberts, now 93, made a living selling suspenders and belts. But in 1963 he gambled on new technology by buying a 1,200-subscriber cable TV system in Tupelo, Miss.

Now the company controlled by his son Brian L. Roberts, 54, is hoping to build an electronic beltway into nearly a third of all homes in the U.S. with pay TV.

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"Brian Roberts is, in fact, the John D. Rockefeller of the 21st century," Harvard Law School visiting professor Susan Crawford said Thursday. "He's cornered an essential input into every aspect of American life."

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Comcast plans a media powerhouse