Comcast attempted to update its X1 cable platform this week, but it ended up causing a lengthy outage for many customers. The company apologized yesterday and promised to issue credits to compensate customers for the time they weren't able to use their TV service. Customer reports suggest that Internet service went down as well.

"We know some of our customers may have missed their favorite shows off and on over the past few days and were unable to easily reach our customer care representatives for assistance… and we’re really sorry," Comcast Senior VP Charlie Herrin wrote. Herrin's new job is fixing Comcast's disappointing customer service. His announcement yesterday, titled, "Our mistake: making it right for customers," continues:

In the process of upgrading the X1 platform with new services and features, a technical issue arose that caused problems for our customers. We're working now to identify the customers who were impacted to personally apologize and proactively give them credits which we plan to have out to them within the next two weeks. This issue was our fault and we want to make it right. So what happened? While we were deploying an upgrade to the X1 platform, we discovered an issue in the way the software that updates X1 was configured. We immediately stopped the deployment, and our engineers began working to identify the root cause and fix the issue. While service has returned to normal for most X1 customers, our engineers are now going back over this issue and taking extra steps to prevent it from happening again. The fix we’ve put in place should be automatic—customers don’t need to do anything (such as rebooting or unplugging the box). Thanks to our customers who have been patient with us, and to our employees who have been working around the clock on this.

Outages were reported in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and other cities. According to customer reports at DownDetector.com, more customers experienced Internet outages than TV outages, with 13 percent reporting a "total blackout." We've asked Comcast whether the faulty update also caused Internet outages but haven't received an answer yet.

UPDATE: Comcast told Ars that the X1 problem affected only video service, as Comcast modems are not part of the X1 system. A spokesperson said, "there was no Internet outage," so It's not clear what caused the Internet complaints by customers this week.

Comcast has more than 20 million customers nationwide, but most of them don't have the new X1 boxes. "There are five million X1 set-top boxes installed in homes across the United States, though the company said the technical problems—now several days old—have not affected all of them," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday.

Comcast, the largest cable company in the US, has asked the government for permission to buy Time Warner Cable, the second largest. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are the two most hated companies in their industry, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.