Comcsast NBC acquisition

[dolt]

Any chance for this deal to go south? It bothers me on a fundamental level.

[CAwasinNJ]

Not as far as GE and Comcast go. They've agreed on the deal. The regulators will have to agree now as well, and the FCC's Copps seems pretty skeptical right now. That probably means there was be some deal that the FCC can point to and say that they got concessions but will ultimately mean nothing. That's how these things usually work. (See the Fairpoint purchase from Verizon and AT&T buying Bellsouth for example.)

I have misgivings too. Comcast hasn't been so great when it comes to creating their own content. They own E!, Versus, G4 and a bunch of others. None are (in my opinion) run very well. G4 in particular is a disaster. I can see how the Comcast head weenies would want to meddle in the NBC/Universal process and that can't be good. From what I understand Jeff Zucker will remain head of NBCU which is good, but I wonder whether he will really be running the show.

There have been rumors about Comcast trying to turn NBC into a pay network and forgetting about the broadcast model completely. I don't think they're that crazy yet, but NBC needs to turn around their losing ways.

[dolt]

Yeah, broadcasters need to find ways to stop the hemorrhaging. So many outlets controlled by a relative few, leaves me apprehensive.

Too big to fail? I hope not.

[tardiscaptain]

I'm also very concerned by this. Comcast has already stated that they want to pull Universal Sports to the cable-only club.

[dxstuboy]

I don't like this either, even though I have Comcast cable. NBC was already large enough when it bought Universal. I fear bigger is not going to be better.

:edit: not to mention, doesn't GE already own all of this stuff?

[CAwasinNJ]

Own what stuff?

[wallywombat]

GE is selling 51% of NBC Universal....

[dxstuboy]

I still worry about this deal, not that it'll effect me that much, I just worry