The hotly debated Comcast-NBC merger has been in the making for over a year now and has finally been approved by the FCC and the DOJ. This will mark the first time one company will control both how television and movies are made and how they get into your living room.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is buying a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co to create a $30 billion business that would include broadcast, cable networks, movie studios and theme parks.
There are a few requirements to the deal that should protect against the most obvious abuses of power. Comcast will be restricted from withholding content from competing content providers. Comcast must also commit to remaining open so that customers can access all web content.
Most notable in the deal are stipulations regarding Hulu. Comcast was forced to relinquish all management rights to Hulu. They will retain a financial stake, but won’t be able to interfere with its management. This is to prevent Comcast from messing with “the development of products that compete with Comcast’s video service.”
Their was only one vote in the FCC against the merger and it came from Commissioner Michael Copps. He says “the potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.” Democratic Senator Al Franken also opposed the deal, saying “the FCC has given a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America.”
The merger officially goes into affect on January 28th.
via Reuters, TechCrunch