Comcast-NBCU Edits Await FCC Members’ Return From CES
Revisions to a draft Comcast-NBC Universal FCC order await the return of commissioners from CES in Las Vegas, agency officials said. They said edits to the draft, which circulated Dec. 23, still will probably be made next week (CD Dec 28 p2). Commissioners and their aides have been reading the draft and starting to think about changes, but they haven’t formally proposed any yet, agency officials said. The draft would require the combined company to carry out public-interest proposals that the companies offered when the multibillion agreement for Comcast to buy control of NBC Universal was announced in December 2009 and since, commission and industry officials said. The proposed order would impose additional requirements on the companies, with many lasting seven years, they said.
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A closely watched part of the draft on program access, barring Comcast-NBC Universal from favoring their own programming over that of other companies, applies to both regional sports networks and to national cable networks owned by the combined companies, said commission officials and a cable official watching the deal. The condition would last seven years, they said. A spokeswoman for the Media Bureau, whose staff helped draft the order, declined to comment.
The draft would require Comcast-NBC Universal to “neighborhood” news channels owned by the companies and others into channel positions close together, said a commission official and an industry executive. That’s a condition sought by Bloomberg, whose financial news network competes with NBC Universal’s CNBC. The draft would require Comcast-NBC Universal to increase the amount of news that NBC airs, along the lines of what the companies have proposed, said commission and industry officials. It also would require that Comcast add independent channels to its systems, also along with lines of what the company proposed, an agency official said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to want the order approved this month, in line with what the companies have said they expect, according to a commission official. The action won’t come at the Jan. 25 meeting, the commission confirmed Tuesday night. Representatives of the companies are meeting this week with some FCC members to explain the deal to them, agency officials said. A Comcast spokeswoman didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking comment. On Monday, executives of Comcast and NBC Universal discussed the conditions under consideration with John Flynn, who is heading FCC review of the deal, said a filing posted Wednesday to docket 10-56.
Opponents of the deal are expected to discuss their concerns again with the FCC, as approval of the order looms, an agency official said. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn and a colleague discussed the nonprofit’s concerns Monday with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the group said. If the commission approves the transaction, it should give “accelerated treatment” to any complaints that a merger condition was violated and to any on program carriage and access disputes, Public Knowledge said.
WealthTV believes it’s “inappropriate” for the FCC to rule on the deal without resolving program carriage complaints filed before Comcast agreed to buy control of NBC Universal, CEO Robert Herring wrote Genachowski and his colleagues. A claim by the independent cable network’s case that Comcast and three other cable operators favored content they owned a stake in over the WealthTV channel -- which an FCC administrative law judge recommended the agency dismiss -- has been at the commission “for over two and a half years!” Herring wrote. “It should be noted that Comcast has repeatedly taken the position that it is not necessary to be concerned with potential carriage abuses arising from the transaction because existing FCC procedures are in place.”