Talks Continue on FCC Conditions for Comcast-NBCU; Order May Circulate Soon
A review by career FCC staffers of Comcast’s planned purchase of control of NBC Universal is intensifying, said agency and public interest officials outside the negotiations. They said commission staffers and executives of the companies continue to discuss conditions for possible approval, and an order may circulate soon. Ex parte filings show that FCC and Justice Department staffers reviewing the deal have in recent days been talking about possible conditions (CD Dec 13 p9). The talks appear to be intensifying and may end soon with a proposed order from the Media Bureau, said officials inside the commission and out. Antitrust experts and analysts have predicted the deal will be approved, with many conditions.
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Bureau work on a draft order on the multibillion deal seems mostly done, with the remaining attention being paid to what conditions to propose on the transaction, several commission officials said. A draft hadn’t circulated by Monday afternoon, they said. One could circulate this week or next, agency officials said. It seems clear that the bureau is close to finishing its work, they said.
Talks among agency officials reviewing the deal continued into the weekend, said officials at the commission and elsewhere. The conversations included representatives of the merging companies, an FCC official said. Some agency officials have said that Chairman Julius Genachowski may get a vote on the deal in late December, but approval in early 2011 still seems more likely (CD Nov 5 p3). Commission representatives and a Comcast spokeswoman had no comment.
"I remain profoundly skeptical that the commission will be able to do this while doing net neutrality at the same time,” Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said of Comcast-NBC Universal, a deal his group opposes. “It’s going to involve negotiation among the commissioners, and it’s really only beginning” when a draft does circulate, he said. That Justice and FCC officials are meeting with representatives of the companies and NBC Universal parent General Electric “is suggestive” that the agencies may “be jointly working on conditions,” said Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright. Her group opposes the deal. “Just because the DOJ is working with the FCC on potential FCC conditions doesn’t” mean Justice may not impose its own deal curbs, Wright said. “DOJ may have conditions itself” on antitrust aspects of the deal, she said.