Comcast NBC merger
Encyclopedia
The Comcast NBC merger occurred in 2009, when General Electric
and Comcast
entered a joint venture regarding NBCUniversal.
The merger sparked debate across the country over topics such as Net Neutrality and Media Consolidation
.
owning 51 percent and General Electric owning 49 percent. Comcast will contribute its stable of cable channels, which includes Versus
, the Golf Channel and E Entertainment
, worth about $7.25 billion, and will pay General Electric about $6.5 billion in cash, for a total of $13.75 billion. Most of NBC Universal valued channels consist of USA
, Bravo, SyFy
, CNBC
and MSNBC
, and with the Comcast contributions will account for 82 percent of the company’s cash flow.
There are many groups that are against the merger. One of the biggest is the Union representatives. Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, which represents some Comcast employees, said the deal would likely mean "the loss of good jobs, the erosion of employee rights, and undermine living standards in the communications and media industries." Cohen said that as of day one there will be $8 billion in new debt that NBC will be taking on and there is going to be a drastic drive to cut costs.
Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts said at earlier Hill hearings that there are no plans for widespread layoffs, pointing out that there is not much overlap in the primarily vertical transaction. In their joint testimony prepared for Thursday's hearing, Roberts and NBCU President Jeff Zucker said the deal would increase investment, since Comcast is focused "exclusively on communications and entertainment" (unlike GE), and that the deal will "preserve and create sustainable media and technology jobs in the U.S."
Jean Prewitt, the president of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, said what was good for Comcast and NBCU in the merger, which she identified as cost-savings and synergies, "is not good for the American public." And she suggested that Comcast's promise of more independent programming might, instead of a field where all flowers bloom, prove to be "a walled and sparsely tended garden." This is just one more step to vertical integration in the media industry that is going to crush the opportunities for independent programming to reach the public."
There are also great benefits that come from the proposition of this merger. Comcast said it want to speed up the availability of on demand movies, bringing them closer to the DVD release date. This would be possible by using shortcuts with NBC ‘s content. Also, Comcast wants to prove that it won't make a mess of programming that the FCC deems necessary, such as local news, children's shows and Spanish-language content. The cable company promises thousands more hours of programming in all of these categories, to be available through cable, over the air, on-demand and online.
(FCC) and United States Department of Justice
approved the syndication of the largest cable operator of the United States, Comcast and the well-known broadcasting company of the United States, NBC Universal which is described as “mammoth entertainment giant” by the website of Wired
, the magazine of "Technology and Culture"
.
includes the combination of video producer (NBC) and video distributor (Comcast). Horizontal integration
includes adding NBC’s programming, such as Bravo and others to Comcast’s programming, including the Golf channel, E!
and others; secondly, adding NBC’s broadcasting station to Comcast’s video network.
Mark Leccese summarizes the huge scale of the new company personally:
“10 TV and movie production studios (including Universal Pictures), 20 cable channels, 11 regional broadcast TV stations, 15 Telemundo
stations, 9 regional sports cable networks, one regional news cable station (New England Cable News), a whole bunch of websites, two pro sports teams in Philadelphia and two arenas, a food service vendor, a ticket agency, and four theme parks. And some other stuff.”
Some scholars also summarize and list the significant scale and scope of the new company more completely in their academic journal named The Proposed Comcast-NBC Universal Combination. This is the integrated-version list.
“Through the merger, Comcast-NBC would control media and entertainment properties including:
A. How Comcast-NBC affects video market
One of the claims is “Comcast Would Be Able to Use its Vertically Integrated Position to Deny Rival Distributors Access to Programming or to Raise the Cost of That Programming” .Comcast-NBC will face two rival distributors – the satellite and telephone company and the new entrant. Of course, both of them are worrying about the domination which Comcast-NBC may be capable of establishing and the entry barrier
. The big challenge for the satellite and telephone company is to find a new business model to convince the programmers that their model will benefit them more than Comcast-NBC. However,Comcast-NBC also keeps improving their business model,which is unhappy to the new entrant.
The other claim is “Comcast Will Use the Merger to Change NBC into a Cable Network, at the Expense of Local Programming”. Some observers predicte that Comcast may convert NBC to a cable network. They think that Comcast must have to make some changes because NBC broadcast station traditionally has only one revenue path, the advertising;
B. How Comcast-NBC affects public policy applied to the range of competition, diversity and localism of media company
As far as media ownership, competition, diversity and localism are the three major topics. Once two or more media company amalgamated, many critics were always suggested immediately, such as the case of merge of News Corp/DirecTV and Sirius-XM. They thought that merger with too much power will harm the competition, diversity of the media marketplace and even the democracy of this country. Some of them directly called it “Merger to Monopoly
”. FCC Commissioner Copps once criticized personally, “It will create a single company with enormous influence over politics, art and culture across the nation and especially in the New York metropolitan area.” No doubt localism is also affected by this merger. One obvious change is that the new entity who acts as a gatekeeper will limit the local or independent voices to get to the slots on the media distribution system. Free Press has conveyed this concern, “The new entity will have an incentive to prioritize NBC shows over other local and independent voices and programs, making it even harder to find alternatives on the cable dial.”
C. Whether the merger indeed benefits the shareholders and consumers
One of the claims is “A combined Comcast-NBCU might have the unique ability to craft new business models that benefit consumers”. With the development of new digital technologies to distribute videos, advertising revenues have not been generated in the new market. Therefore, these enterprise operators have to find out a new business model in order to make the revenues financially available. Facing the uncertain environment, the Comcast Senior Vice President for Corporate Development, Robert Pick still shows his determination. He says, “the combination would ameliorate the negotiations friction that had made it difficult for Comcast, primarily a distribution and communications company, to convince content owners and programmers to work with us to create and deliver more content to consumers in a greater variety of ways.”
D. How Comcast-NBC changes the price of video markets
Many observers predict that the price of distributing videos is going to fall dramatically in the near future because three distribution products of Comcast (Broadcast-TV-Internet) are all merging into the network. Wall Street Journal
business columnist Holman Jenkins says, “Customers want the product for free. Comcast’s lifeblood, the $100-a-month cable bill and the $50-a-month broadband bill, increasingly look like duplicative expenses. And so on.” In order to recover the lost revenue from content, Comcast-NBC may enhance their business on service of advertising, subscription and etc.
, who has run NBC Sports for nearly 22 years starts to reshape the sports programming on Comcast. Ebersol decides to add new roles at Comcast programming. “Our great strength is the programming, production, marketing and relationship orientation of NBC Sports,” Ebersol said after the agreement of combination of Comcast and NBC were announced. He focuses on rebranding and developing two programming: the NBC’s sports golf programming and the Versus.
Ebersol rebranded the NBC’s sports golf programming and renamed it “the Golf Channel on NBC”. He said, “It’ll take 18 months to two years to blend more and more talent across the two.” Also, he will probably convert the name of the Versus to “ Somewhere down the road”.
Ebersol installed and organized the new execution team of the Golf Channel. He has appointed Mike McCarley, a former NBC Sports publicist who is now senior vice president of strategic marketing at NBC Sports, to run the Golf Channel. And he estimated that because McCarley has not run a network before, so probably he could have the marketing skills “to make the Golf Channel go pop.”
At Versus，Ebersol installed a three-man group: Jon Litner as president；Sam Flood as executive producer；Jon Miller as president of programming.
. Large media outlets such as CNN
and Fox News Channel
did cover the merger extensively through web articles; critics were disapproving of the general media's lack of televised coverage for the event.
has somewhat parodied the merger with stunning accuracy. 30 Rock is produced by NBC, previously owned by GE. Season Four of the show aired in fall 2009 and ended with GE being taken over the fictitious company "KableTown". By coincidence or not, Season Five eerily aired the fictitious merger of GE and KableTown on the same date that Comcast and NBC officially merged.
and Time Warner
filed applications to the FCC requesting the acquisition of Time Warner by AOL.
During the decision making process, the FCC was concerned with two major factors. The first being AOL's risk of becoming a monopoly and thus reducing market freedom; and, the concern that Time Warner content holdings will be favored over other websites through price discrimination
.
Similar issues are questioned with the Comcast and NBC merger, especially the concerns with net neutrality and price discrimination. After the merger, the new company began to experience large decreases in revenue/ By 2003, "AOL" was dropped from the company name.
moved to purchase T-Mobile
from Deutsche Telekom
for $39 billion, which acted as a threat of creating AT&T a monopoly in the GSM market in the U.S.
Web-advocates are hopeful that the merger will bring new arguments to the table for net-neutrality.
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
entered a joint venture regarding NBCUniversal.
The merger sparked debate across the country over topics such as Net Neutrality and Media Consolidation
Consolidation (business)
Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
.
Merger proposal
After nearly nine months of negotiations, Comcast, the United States’ largest cable operator, announced an agreement on Thursday (December 3, 2009) to acquire NBC Universal from the General Electric. The deal NBC Universal was valued at around $30 billion. This agreement creates a joint agreement, with ComcastComcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
owning 51 percent and General Electric owning 49 percent. Comcast will contribute its stable of cable channels, which includes Versus
Versus (TV channel)
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network and was launched on July 1, 1995, focusing on fishing, hunting, and other outdoor sports...
, the Golf Channel and E Entertainment
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
, worth about $7.25 billion, and will pay General Electric about $6.5 billion in cash, for a total of $13.75 billion. Most of NBC Universal valued channels consist of USA
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
, Bravo, SyFy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
and MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
, and with the Comcast contributions will account for 82 percent of the company’s cash flow.
There are many groups that are against the merger. One of the biggest is the Union representatives. Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, which represents some Comcast employees, said the deal would likely mean "the loss of good jobs, the erosion of employee rights, and undermine living standards in the communications and media industries." Cohen said that as of day one there will be $8 billion in new debt that NBC will be taking on and there is going to be a drastic drive to cut costs.
Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts said at earlier Hill hearings that there are no plans for widespread layoffs, pointing out that there is not much overlap in the primarily vertical transaction. In their joint testimony prepared for Thursday's hearing, Roberts and NBCU President Jeff Zucker said the deal would increase investment, since Comcast is focused "exclusively on communications and entertainment" (unlike GE), and that the deal will "preserve and create sustainable media and technology jobs in the U.S."
Jean Prewitt, the president of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, said what was good for Comcast and NBCU in the merger, which she identified as cost-savings and synergies, "is not good for the American public." And she suggested that Comcast's promise of more independent programming might, instead of a field where all flowers bloom, prove to be "a walled and sparsely tended garden." This is just one more step to vertical integration in the media industry that is going to crush the opportunities for independent programming to reach the public."
There are also great benefits that come from the proposition of this merger. Comcast said it want to speed up the availability of on demand movies, bringing them closer to the DVD release date. This would be possible by using shortcuts with NBC ‘s content. Also, Comcast wants to prove that it won't make a mess of programming that the FCC deems necessary, such as local news, children's shows and Spanish-language content. The cable company promises thousands more hours of programming in all of these categories, to be available through cable, over the air, on-demand and online.
Approval of merger
In January 18, 2011, U.S. Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) and United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
approved the syndication of the largest cable operator of the United States, Comcast and the well-known broadcasting company of the United States, NBC Universal which is described as “mammoth entertainment giant” by the website of Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, the magazine of "Technology and Culture"
Technology and Culture
Technology and Culture is a quarterly academic journal founded in 1959. It is an official publication of the Society for the History of Technology, whose members routinely refer to it as "T&C." Besides scholarly articles, the journal publishes reviews of books and museum exhibitions. Occasionally,...
.
Scale of new company
The Comcast-NBC consolidation expands Comcast both vertically and horizontally within the media market. Vertical integrationVertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
includes the combination of video producer (NBC) and video distributor (Comcast). Horizontal integration
Horizontal integration
In microeconomics and strategic management, the term horizontal integration describes a type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets...
includes adding NBC’s programming, such as Bravo and others to Comcast’s programming, including the Golf channel, E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
and others; secondly, adding NBC’s broadcasting station to Comcast’s video network.
Mark Leccese summarizes the huge scale of the new company personally:
“10 TV and movie production studios (including Universal Pictures), 20 cable channels, 11 regional broadcast TV stations, 15 Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
stations, 9 regional sports cable networks, one regional news cable station (New England Cable News), a whole bunch of websites, two pro sports teams in Philadelphia and two arenas, a food service vendor, a ticket agency, and four theme parks. And some other stuff.”
Some scholars also summarize and list the significant scale and scope of the new company more completely in their academic journal named The Proposed Comcast-NBC Universal Combination. This is the integrated-version list.
“Through the merger, Comcast-NBC would control media and entertainment properties including:
- Comcast’s cable systems, which currently serve 24.2 million subscribers, making Comcast the largest provider of ultichannel video programming distribution(MVPD) services in the United States;
- Comcast’s broadband network, which passes more than 50 million homes and provides high speed Internet service to just under 15 million households, making Comcast the largest residential internet service providerInternet service providerAn Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
(ISP) in the United States; - A number of national cable networks, including NBC’s USA, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, and Syfy networks and Comcast’s E!, Style, Golf Channel, and Versus networks, as well as minority interests in the A&E, Biography, History Channel, Weather Channel, and Lifetime cable networks, and small interests in the Big Ten, NHL, and MLB cable networks;
- Comcast’s 10 regional cable sports networks;
- The NBC national broadcast television network, including NBC News (a leading source of global and national news with top-rated news programming), NBC Universal Sports and Olympics (which holds contracts to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics2010 Winter OlympicsThe 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
and 2012 Summer Olympics2012 Summer OlympicsThe 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
, NBC Sunday Night Football, NHL/Stanley Cup, the PGA Tour, the U.S. Open, the Ryder Cup, WimbledonThe Championships, WimbledonThe Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
, and the Kentucky Derby), and NBC Entertainment; - NBC’s Telemundo national broadcast television network, the second-largest Spanish language programming network in the United States;
- NBC’s ten owned and operated local broadcast stations, which carry the NBC network programming in large U.S. markets, including New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Philadelphia; - NBC’s 16 owned and operated local broadcast stations, which carry the Telemundo network programming in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations, including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and Dallas;
- NBCU’s large television production operations, which produce broadcast network programming, NBCU Television Distribution’s broadcast program syndication operations, and a 3,000-title library of television episodes;
- NBCU’s Universal Pictures and Focus Features, which produce theatrical and non-theatrical films, as well as Universal Studio Home Entertainment’s extensive movie library with more than 4,000 titles;
- Digital media properties, including CNBC.com, IVillageIVillageiVillage, Inc. is a media company that is owned by NBCUniversal. The site focuses on categories targeted at women, including Food, Health, Entertainment, Family, Beauty & Style. Additional businesses and brand extensions within iVillage Networks include iVillage UK, NBC Digital Health Network,...
, NBC.com, FandangoFandangoFandango is a lively couple's dance, usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping . Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has an instrumental introduction followed by "variaciones"...
, and Daily CandyDailyCandyDailyCandy is an e-mail newsletter based in New York. It was founded by Dany Levy in March 2000. It was sold to Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures for around $3 million in 2003, and then sold to Comcast for $125 million in August 2008. Previously a New York-only insider's newsletter; DailyCandy has...
, which together generate more than 40 million unique users each month; - NBC’s 30% interest in Hulu.comHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, a website that offers free, advertising supported streaming video of broadcast and cable television programs.”
Influence
It is certain that the video marketplace has changed structurally with or without Comcast-NBC merger. More and more videos, programmes and advertisements are displayed on the Internet, not the traditional media channel, television. The video business model has gradually changed as time goes by. Comcast has reached to such a significant scale that owns large amounts of media and entertainment properties. However, facing the uncertainty of video marketplace, many people proposed their concerns:A. How Comcast-NBC affects video market
One of the claims is “Comcast Would Be Able to Use its Vertically Integrated Position to Deny Rival Distributors Access to Programming or to Raise the Cost of That Programming” .Comcast-NBC will face two rival distributors – the satellite and telephone company and the new entrant. Of course, both of them are worrying about the domination which Comcast-NBC may be capable of establishing and the entry barrier
Barriers to entry
In theories of competition in economics, barriers to entry are obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market. The term can refer to hindrances a firm faces in trying to enter a market or industry - such as government regulation, or a large, established firm taking advantage of economies...
. The big challenge for the satellite and telephone company is to find a new business model to convince the programmers that their model will benefit them more than Comcast-NBC. However,Comcast-NBC also keeps improving their business model,which is unhappy to the new entrant.
The other claim is “Comcast Will Use the Merger to Change NBC into a Cable Network, at the Expense of Local Programming”. Some observers predicte that Comcast may convert NBC to a cable network. They think that Comcast must have to make some changes because NBC broadcast station traditionally has only one revenue path, the advertising;
B. How Comcast-NBC affects public policy applied to the range of competition, diversity and localism of media company
As far as media ownership, competition, diversity and localism are the three major topics. Once two or more media company amalgamated, many critics were always suggested immediately, such as the case of merge of News Corp/DirecTV and Sirius-XM. They thought that merger with too much power will harm the competition, diversity of the media marketplace and even the democracy of this country. Some of them directly called it “Merger to Monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
”. FCC Commissioner Copps once criticized personally, “It will create a single company with enormous influence over politics, art and culture across the nation and especially in the New York metropolitan area.” No doubt localism is also affected by this merger. One obvious change is that the new entity who acts as a gatekeeper will limit the local or independent voices to get to the slots on the media distribution system. Free Press has conveyed this concern, “The new entity will have an incentive to prioritize NBC shows over other local and independent voices and programs, making it even harder to find alternatives on the cable dial.”
C. Whether the merger indeed benefits the shareholders and consumers
One of the claims is “A combined Comcast-NBCU might have the unique ability to craft new business models that benefit consumers”. With the development of new digital technologies to distribute videos, advertising revenues have not been generated in the new market. Therefore, these enterprise operators have to find out a new business model in order to make the revenues financially available. Facing the uncertain environment, the Comcast Senior Vice President for Corporate Development, Robert Pick still shows his determination. He says, “the combination would ameliorate the negotiations friction that had made it difficult for Comcast, primarily a distribution and communications company, to convince content owners and programmers to work with us to create and deliver more content to consumers in a greater variety of ways.”
D. How Comcast-NBC changes the price of video markets
Many observers predict that the price of distributing videos is going to fall dramatically in the near future because three distribution products of Comcast (Broadcast-TV-Internet) are all merging into the network. Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
business columnist Holman Jenkins says, “Customers want the product for free. Comcast’s lifeblood, the $100-a-month cable bill and the $50-a-month broadband bill, increasingly look like duplicative expenses. And so on.” In order to recover the lost revenue from content, Comcast-NBC may enhance their business on service of advertising, subscription and etc.
Programming
Dick EbersolDick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
, who has run NBC Sports for nearly 22 years starts to reshape the sports programming on Comcast. Ebersol decides to add new roles at Comcast programming. “Our great strength is the programming, production, marketing and relationship orientation of NBC Sports,” Ebersol said after the agreement of combination of Comcast and NBC were announced. He focuses on rebranding and developing two programming: the NBC’s sports golf programming and the Versus.
Ebersol rebranded the NBC’s sports golf programming and renamed it “the Golf Channel on NBC”. He said, “It’ll take 18 months to two years to blend more and more talent across the two.” Also, he will probably convert the name of the Versus to “ Somewhere down the road”.
Ebersol installed and organized the new execution team of the Golf Channel. He has appointed Mike McCarley, a former NBC Sports publicist who is now senior vice president of strategic marketing at NBC Sports, to run the Golf Channel. And he estimated that because McCarley has not run a network before, so probably he could have the marketing skills “to make the Golf Channel go pop.”
At Versus，Ebersol installed a three-man group: Jon Litner as president；Sam Flood as executive producer；Jon Miller as president of programming.
In the media
Media coverage of the Comcast/NBC merger peaked in late December of 2010 and early January of 2011, however seemed minimal outside of primary democratic, free-speech advocates such as Al FrankenAl Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
. Large media outlets such as CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
did cover the merger extensively through web articles; critics were disapproving of the general media's lack of televised coverage for the event.
In popular media
The popular TV series 30 Rock30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
has somewhat parodied the merger with stunning accuracy. 30 Rock is produced by NBC, previously owned by GE. Season Four of the show aired in fall 2009 and ended with GE being taken over the fictitious company "KableTown". By coincidence or not, Season Five eerily aired the fictitious merger of GE and KableTown on the same date that Comcast and NBC officially merged.
AOL/Time Warner
On February 11, 2000, AOLAOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
and Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
filed applications to the FCC requesting the acquisition of Time Warner by AOL.
During the decision making process, the FCC was concerned with two major factors. The first being AOL's risk of becoming a monopoly and thus reducing market freedom; and, the concern that Time Warner content holdings will be favored over other websites through price discrimination
Price discrimination
Price discrimination or price differentiation exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider...
.
Similar issues are questioned with the Comcast and NBC merger, especially the concerns with net neutrality and price discrimination. After the merger, the new company began to experience large decreases in revenue/ By 2003, "AOL" was dropped from the company name.
AT&T/T-Mobile
On March 20, 2011 AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
moved to purchase T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
from Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
for $39 billion, which acted as a threat of creating AT&T a monopoly in the GSM market in the U.S.
Web-advocates are hopeful that the merger will bring new arguments to the table for net-neutrality.
See also
- Columbia Journalism ReviewColumbia Journalism ReviewThe Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
“Who Owns What” webpage - Free PressColumbus Free PressThe Columbus Free Press is an alternative journal published in Columbus, Ohio since October 11, 1970. This publication originally focused on anti-war and alternative culture issues...
’s “Ownership Chart: The Big Six.”