FCC Chair Seeks Comcast-NBC Merger Conditions 68
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the go-stifle-yourself dept.
from the go-stifle-yourself dept.
Anarki2004 writes with this excerpt from an Associated Press report:
"The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing regulatory conditions to ensure that cable TV giant Comcast Corp. cannot stifle competition in the video market once it takes control of NBC Universal. The conditions laid out Thursday by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are intended to guarantee that satellite providers and other rival television services can still carry marquee NBC programming and that new Internet video distributors can get the content they need to grow and compete. ... Genachowski wants to ensure that Comcast won't be able to use its control over NBC's vast media empire to withhold content from emerging online competitors such as Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. — locking consumers into costly monthly cable bills to get access to a wide range of popular programming. Genachowski now needs at least two of the other four FCC commissioners to back his proposal, and he is likely to make modifications to win the support he needs to cap off the yearlong regulatory review."
Block the Sale (Score:5, Interesting)
If there are such serious concerns for what impact the sale will make, block it on anti-trust issues. I'm not one for government regulation, but we have some laws for situations like this.
These weak concessions, and planning on negotiating them down, makes this appear as little but a panacea for the citizens anger when they start getting shafted.
Only one solution (Score:4, Interesting)
Split the content provider and the common carrier apart.
Re:Only one solution (Score:4, Interesting)
Split the content provider and the common carrier apart.
You mean something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc [wikipedia.org].
"United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 US 131 (1948) (also known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948, the Paramount Case, the Paramount Decision or the Paramount Decree) was a landmark United States Supreme Court anti-trust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films. It would also change the way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. The Court held in this case that the existing distribution scheme was in violation of the antitrust laws of the United States, which prohibit certain exclusive dealing arrangements."
Why is this country so hell bent on going backwards when it comes to corporate power and monopolies? I can't believe this merger was ever even considered by the feds, let alone treated as a done deal from the beginning as it has been.