Comcast wins FCC approval for NBC deal

The Federal Communicatons Commission on Tuesday approved Comcast’s bid to take a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal. The deal was approved with a series of stipulations that aim to prevent the telecoms behemoth from squashing all competition and ultimately negatively impacting the American public — but the deal nonetheless raises some serious questions about the impact of such a large-scale media consolidation.

Comcast and GE, NBC Universal’s parent company, made voluntary commitments that the commission adopted as a condition for the final deal. They included expanding Spanish language programming, offering subsidized broadband internet to low income homes and expanding high speed internet services to schools, libraries and other underserved communities.

Despite these silver linings to the deal, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, the capitol’s loudest preacher on the ills of media consolidation, firmly stood against the deal, sardonically observing; “simply blessing business deals is not the FCC’s statutorily-mandated job”.

Copps’ opposition to large-scale media consolidation is predicated on concerns about the considerable market power that Comcast will now wield over programming content and the means of distribution. Copps argues that this deal erodes diversity, localism and competition in the media arena –- the three essential pillars of the public interest standard mandated by law.

However, Comcast has promised to increase the American public’s access to the internet, providing monthly access for low-income housing pegged at $10 per month. As well as being a game-changer in modern communications, according to ICT Development Index (IDI), access to the internet leads to better educational performance and socio-economic advancement.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Group found that 63 percent of American adults currently have access to the internet. But, internet adoption in U.S. households has slowed in recent years. The Comcast provision will possibly re-catalyze the spread of internet access nation-wide.

As of yet, Comcast has not offered any details on how the reduced rate internet will work or who will be eligible. But at the time of writing, Comcast responded to The American Independent’s questions about the provision, and promised to gather the relevant information and figures.