Comcast is one of the largest internet service providers in the United States. They also happen to own a major movie studio in Universal Studios, a major tv network in NBC and they own other cable TV channels, so they are very interested in reducing piracy of their products. The new Anti-Piracy system that they are proposing to various networks and movie studios will intrude upon a peer to peer download and offer a legitimate means of downloading that particular movie or show. Comcast may or may not directly benefit from such redirects, as they may not be the owners of that media, but if this system is adopted by many ISP's, pushing consumers to legitimate methods of downloading will benefit their company in the long run.
Comcast is already a participant in the six strikes program that was started earlier this year, but this new program is quite different in approach and ultimate goal. And though it is not being advanced as a replacement for the Copyright Alert System, it does seem to show some cracks in the unity of that earlier method of "informing" the public about their piracy habits.
Or as Variety states: Using pirated content as a platform to drive legal transactions reflects an alternate philosophy regarding copyright infringement, one that sees the illegal activity less as a crime that requires punishment and more as lead generation to a consumer whose behavior is borne out of inadequate legitimate digital content options.
Comcast states that the technical side of the program has been worked out already. Deep packet inspection and comparison of media files will probably be part of it, though they haven't mentioned any details as of yet.
You can read a great deal more at Variety.
