Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Media Monsters Threaten Net Freedom
Comcast, the nation’s biggest cable and broadband Internet company, has plans to take over NBC Universal.
The result would be a new kind of media monster that would not only produce some of America’s most popular entertainment but also control viewers’ access to it.
Under the deal, which has been in the works for months, Comcast would pay $6.5 billion in cash up front and contribute $7.25 billion in cable assets to acquire a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from its current owner, General Electric. Comcast would control the joint venture’s day-to-day operations but Pentagon contractor GE would retain a 49 percent stake.
The likely impact on consumer choices? Well you tell me: the Washington Post reports that all in all, the joint venture would control more than one out of every five television-viewing hours.
The $30 billion deal certainly has consumer groups and lawmakers worried. Will there be a big regulatory battle? Congress doesn’t have a great record. In 1996, a Democratic President OK’d the last great concentration of media power under the generous terms of the ‘96 Telecommunications Act.
Nonetheless, with almost one in four cable subscribers in the U.S. a Comcast customer and NBC Universal owning not only NBC but also dozens of cable channels, including Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo as well as theme parks, TV stations such as Washington’s WRC (Channel 4), and Universal movie studios, the NBC Comcast deal is a biggie.
Senators John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, have called for hearings. Michael J. Copps, a Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission, says the merger faces a “very steep climb” with him.
High on the list of critics’ concerns are worries about the impact on online video. Would Comcast/NBC continue to make other companies’ video available free, on their internet providers? Why would they? Only if government enforces Net Neutrality. In other words, only if there’s a law.
In the meantime, it’s time to cherish ever more all that remains in the way of independent media. And yes, that’s our self interest speaking.
3 Comments so far
Show AllFlanders sez: "Senators John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, have called for hearings."
***
Uh-oh.
Rockefeller was the point man on the Telecom immunity provision of last year's FISA debacle, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the industry, much as Baucus is bagman for the insurance/pharma cabal.
Having watched the banksters get theirs and the insurance privateers about to reap their share, it appears the telecoms have shouldered their way into the next spot in line at the public bailout trough.
Enjoy high-speed access while you've got it.
I just hope Michael Copps can stop it.
As our society becomes all the more introverted and self-absorbed,
as the ruling elite consolidate their power combines to better enrich
themselves upon our misery, surely the self-absorbed majority will
require a substantial increase in stress relieving pleasure.
And so, all the more does news media become their only contact
with the outside world. And though the burden of media should be to
produce new light to force the new darkness of those rich and powerful
to give way, quite the reverse is the intent of those in control.
And even here on this WEB page, a best-case condition for outward
camaraderie among men to establish strong skills in organizing workers,
we see a majority totally self-absorbed in producing entertaining words
to glorify themselves and impress others.
And if you dare express good logic that causes them to think stressful reality,
as opposed to emotionalizing pleasurable entertainment, surely ignored shall
you be or ganged up on with a vengeance.