In seeking to purchase NBC Universal, Comcast Corp. is looking to gain a dominant position as entertainment empires are realigned. The company believes it can prosper by producing and owning content as well as distributing it.
The American public has a vital interest in the coming realignment. Comcast’s offer of $13.75 billion to General Electric for a controlling stake in NBC deserves close government scrutiny.
Comcast recognizes that the deal raises important public questions, and the company has already made significant promises. Notably, it has pledged to maintain free over-the-air broadcasting on existing NBC stations and to preserve the independence of NBC news.
But there are many areas in which a dominant media company can press for an advantage. Competing cable providers, for instance, might soon find they are facing higher costs to carry NBC and cable channels Oxygen, Bravo and MSNBC. Online, Comcast might use NBC Universal’s deep library of shows and movies, plus its interest in the online site Hulu, to try and control the evolution of video delivery via the Internet.
Comcast already serves nearly 24 million cable customers, 16 million high-speed Internet customers and 7.4 million digital telephone customers. It operates a variety of cable television channels and owns a stake in MGM. If it succeeds in acquiring NBC Universal, its strength in content and distribution could give it great control over the future of media and entertainment.
It is natural that Comcast would try and use these strengths to its own advantage ”“ which would not necessarily reflect the interests of the public. In 2007, it took steps to aggressively control Internet activities on its network, blocking use of file-sharing programs. The FCC found that the company’s interference with Web traffic violated federal rules.
Large corporations, with varying degrees of success, are increasingly seeking to dominate all sectors of the media. The trend poses a threat both to customers and individual creativity and showmanship.
But large-scale investment has also been responsible for making news and entertainment widely available on a variety of electronic platforms. As they review big deals like this, regulators and Congress must find ways to ensure that media and entertainment are not unduly constrained by corporate interests.
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