The seemingly endless wait for announcement of a Comcast/NBC merger continues. This is an interesting cable-centric view of the impact of such a deal.

3 Reasons Why Cable Should Cheer the Marriage
Comcast-NBCU Could Accelerate Authentication, Spur VOD Growth, Boost Cable Stocks
If it comes to pass, the deal would offer a huge stable of content [...]

Hulu is arguably the most successful scheme the broadcast networks have devised in many years. It is a roaring success and is already extremely profitable. But, as Mediaweek reports, Hulu’s partners are bickering, and their over-the-air sales staffs are trying to interfere with Hulu’s own ad sales operation. Perhaps it is inevitable, [...]

Google Voice is a controversial and exciting free service that lets users employ a single phone number which connects to some or all of their phones and transcribes voice mail messages into an email, among other features. Yesterday, Google acquired another service called Gizmo5 which will add some startling new capabilities. Wired has [...]

Everyone views issues from his or her own perspective. Thus is it not surprising that Advertising Age sees the possible Comcast/NBC deal as an advertising play.
Comcast Play for NBC Universal Is a Bet on Future of Advertising
Comcast Corp. is looking to take a 51% stake in NBC Universal, surely a sign of the durability [...]

By Juliana Gruenwald, National Journal
A coalition of public interest groups are calling on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to clarify the agency’s position on network neutrality. In a letter sent Monday to Genachowski, the Media Access Project, Free Press, Consumers Union and the New America Foundation voiced concern with recent comments from an FCC official that [...]

There has been a lot of speculation about the emerging and increasing collaboration between Google and Verizon Wireless. Today’s Wall Street Journal has very interesting details about how this odd couple’s CEOs have begun to cooperate over the last eight months.

Google, Verizon Deepen Ties
When Verizon Wireless and Google Inc. set out to challenge the [...]

By Brian Stelter, NY TIMES
The Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, has already called the potential union of Comcast and NBC Universal “the equivalent of Godzilla swallowing Rockefeller Center.”
Clearly, some media reform advocates are girding for a fight.
Comcast’s plan to gain control of NBC Universal, which is expected to be announced in the [...]

By Robert MacMillan and John Poirier, Reuters
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Newspaper publishers and other struggling media companies want the U.S. government to help them survive the toughest times they have ever known, mainly by easing rules on how big they can get.
They will be lucky if they get any aid at all.
The Federal Communications Commission [...]

A few weeks ago, Daily RoadMAP featured a commentary from Tom Wheeler, who previously headed the cable and wireless industry trade associations. Here is another smart analysis from Tom linking the Network Neutrality debate with the looming fight over spectrum reallocation.
Net Neutrality and the Spectrum Quest
Unstated in the FCC chairman’s warning of the [...]

Ken Auletta’s new book on Google has received a lot of buzz. This piece in Fortune offers a tantalizing preview.

10 things Google Has Taught Us
In researching his new book, Googled: the End of the World as We Know It, to be published next week by Penguin Press, author Ken Auletta had extensive access to [...]