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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - January 20, 2011
FCC Approves Comcast-NBC Merger, Mostly
by: Nadia Prupis
truthout - Report
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a
conditions-based merger between Comcast and NBC on
Tuesday. After months of heated debate over the potential
consequences to net neutrality, a 4-to-1 vote by the FCC
sealed Comcast's acquisition of NBC. The Department of
Justice (DOJ) also announced its approval of the deal.
Now, with 51 percent of the stake in NBC Universal (NBCU),
Comcast will own the majority of the network's channels,
including CNBC and Bravo, as well as the Universal
Pictures movie studio.
Comcast will also be able to maintain partial ownership
of Hulu.com, but must "relinquish its managerial rights,"
according to a DOJ press release. "Without such remedy,
Comcast could, through its seats on Hulu's board of
directors, interfere with the management of Hulu, and, in
particular, the development of products that compete with
Comcast's video service. Comcast also must continue to
make NBCU content available to Hulu that is comparable to
the programming Hulu obtains from Disney and News Corp."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski included several provisions
in the commission's approval statement to note the import-
ance of net neutrality as the country's biggest cable
company takes control of a large broadcast network.
"As part of the merger, Comcast-NBCU will be required to
take affirmative steps to foster competition in the video
marketplace," the FCC approval letter read. "In addition,
Comcast-NBCU will increase news coverage to viewers;
expand children's programming; enhance the diversity of
programming available to Spanish-speaking viewers; offer
broadband services to low-income Americans are reduced
monthly prices; and provide high-speed broadband to
schools, libraries and underserved communities, among
other public benefits."
Comcast will also have to abide by the FCC's recently-
approved net neutrality regulations, even if Congress
repeals it, and must offer customers the option of
ordering Internet service separately from a cable
bundle - but only for the next seven years.
The restrictions enforce Comcast in providing content to
some online distributors, but not all. Comcast will be
able to continue withholding its content from some
competitors, like Google TV.
Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps opposed the vote.
The deal "reaches into virtually every corner of our media
and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in
the land," Copps said in a statement. "It confers too much
power in one company's hands."
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Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota), a longtime critic of the
merger for over a year, called the deal a "tremendous
disappointment."
"What we see today is an effort by the FCC to appease the
very companies it's charged with regulating," Franken
stated. "With approval of this merger, the FCC has given a
single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the
flow of information in America." Franken, who previously
worked for NBC on "Saturday Night Live," said last February
at a Judiciary Committee hearing that his experience with
the network led him to distrust promises that the two media
companies had made.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, who leads the
DOJ antitrust division, voiced her support of the merger as
part of an "open and fair marketplace."
"The Antitrust Division conducted a thorough investigation
of the Comcast and NBC Universal joint venture to examine
the competitive effects of the transaction," Varney said
in a statement.
Josh Silver, president of media watchdog group Free Press,
disagreed that the merger will help maintain a public and
competitive market. "This deal will give Comcast unpreced-
ented control over both media content and the physical
network that delivers it," Silver stated. "While the FCC
has adopted conditions, they are insufficient short-term
or voluntary fixes that will fail to prevent permanent
harm to competition, consumer choice and the future of
the Internet."
In April 2010, an appeals court cast doubt on the FCC's
ability to regulate the Internet, rejecting the com-
mission's 2008 cease-and-desist case against Comcast,
which had been accused of slowing and eventually prohibit-
ing BitTorrent transfers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who called for the end of
the merger after Keith Olbermann's suspension last year,
said the FCC and the DOJ "ignored their mandates to protect
the public interest and preserve competition" by approving
the deal. "At a time when a small number of giant media
corporations already control what the American people see,
hear, and read, we do not need another conglomerate with
more control over the production and distribution of news
and other programming."
The American Cable Association filed a study with the
FCC in December estimating that the merger would cost
consumers $2.4 billion over a nine-year period, due to
higher monthly cable bills and subscription costs. Comcast
rejected the study on the grounds that it was a "flawed
analysis" that relied on unsupported calculations.
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