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/ 07.13.2010 12:00AM
FCC Restarts Comcast-NBCU Shot Clock
WASHINGTON: The Federal Communications Commission today
restarted the shot clock governing its review of the proposed Comcast-NBCU
merger. The commission has 180 days to review such merger requests but can
suspend the so-called shot clock at its own discretion. It’s done so twice thus
far--between April 16-June 3 to extend the opportunity for public comments, and
again June 11 to give both companies more time to provide information to the
FCC. Comcast ponied up the required data July 1; NBCU, July 6. the FCC said.
“In accordance with our June 24 letters, today, we are restarting the
transaction time clock, as of July 6, 2010,” the FCC said in a
letter
to Comcast and NBCU attorneys. “As such, today, July 13, 2010, is Day 45 under
the time clock.”
Comcast announced it’s intent to take a majority stake in NBC Universal last
December in a $8 billion deal. The transaction would mark the first time a U.S.
pay TV distributor would own a major broadcast network. (Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corp. owns several pay platforms outside of the United States, where it owns
the Fox network.) Comcast agreed to take a 51 percent share of NBCU from
General Electric, with GE retaining an option to cash out on the remaining 49
percent over seven years.
Comcast’s assimilation of NBCU will make it the nation’s largest media company,
with 24 million pay TV subscribers, 15.7 million broadband subscribers,
NBC--one of the Big Four broadcast TV networks--10 NBC O&Os, Telemundo
Network and 16 of its O&Os, NBC Universal TV production and syndication
operations, NBC News, 10 regional sports cable networks, eight national cable
networks and minority stakes in five more, a movie studio and dozens of Web
sites.
Media consolidation critics and labor unions have blasted the proposed deal. It
must pass muster with the Justice Department as well as the FCC. Sen. Herb Kohl
(D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, urged the FCC and
Justice to impose several conditions on the merger. In a
May 26 letter
to the agency chiefs, Kohl suggested multiple requirements to assure
nondiscriminatory behaviors in programming carriage and access; the divestment
of NBCU’s one-third stake in Hulu; and network neutrality on Comcast.
The proposed merger is expected to clear regulatory hoops by the end of this
year or early in 2011.
-- Deborah D. McAdams
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Thursday 12:00AM
Broadcasters File Suit Against FCC’s Political File Rules
“The FCC decision to put the political files online will bring broadcasters into the 21st century, and will make already public information more easily accessible to everyone.” Free Press Senior Policy Counsel Corie Wright.