Comcast-NBC Merger To Face Hill Scrutiny This Week
Posted: Wednesday February 3, 2010
By Juliana Gruenwald, National Journal
Executives from Comcast and NBC Universal will be on the hot seat on both sides of the Capitol Thursday to address concerns about the potential competitive and consumer implications of their proposed merger. Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker will appear first before the House Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee for a morning hearing on the “potential impact on the media marketplace of” the deal.
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, announced in December that it would take a majority stake in NBC Universal, which controls the NBC broadcast network, a movie studio and cable networks such as Bravo and Syfy. Others scheduled to testify at the House hearing include the Consumer Federation of America’s Mark Cooper, the Progress and Freedom Foundation’s Adam Thierer, Dispatch Printing Company CEO Michael J. Fiorile, chairman of the NBC Affiliates Board, and Colleen Abdoulah, president and CEO of WOW!, an Internet, cable, and phone provider.
Across the Capitol, the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee will be hosting an afternoon hearing focused on the Comcast-NBC merger’s impact on competition and consumers. Abdoulah, Cooper, Roberts and Zucker will be testing at the Senate hearing as well as the Media Access Project’s Andrew J. Schwartzman. When the merger was announced, Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., voiced concern, saying, “Antitrust regulators must ensure that all content providers are treated fairly on the Comcast platform, and that Comcast does not get undue advantages in gaining access to programming.”
A coalition of critics, including Schwartzman, will hold a teleconference Wednesday to detail the reasons why they believe the merger should be blocked. Among the potential problems that groups such as the American Cable Association, Free Press and the Media Access Project say will emerge if Comcast and NBC are allowed to merge include increases in cable rates and “less new, diverse and independent programming.”