Will Promises be enough to pass the Comcast NBC Universal Merger? Comcast to continue NBC’s policy of charging “the best price it can get from its customers.”
You know the old saying “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” That’s how I feel about trusting the promises from Comcast during the Congressional and Senate Hearings regarding the proposed merge of Comcast and NBC Universal.
Comcast promises that:
- They will make their programming available to all other cable providers, etc. and won’t charge them exorbitant prices for it in order to put their competitors out of business.
- They will not withhold programming from other providers or network affiliates (your locally owned NBC station).
- They will not switch their network programming to pay channels (i.e. move the NBC Nightly News to MSNBC or ?).
- They will accept independent and small production companies projects instead of producing all their product and keeping the lion’s share of $ for themselves.
- They will not limit access to other online sites.
Comcast and NBC have not had a good track record regarding those promises so have they really changed?
According to Ms Abdoulah from WOW Internet, Comcast has content called “TV Anywhere,” that they are denying retransmission to other cable providers citing that the technology is not ready yet.” So, yes, it is still going on.
Senator (I’m smart enough I’m good enough and gosh darn it everyone likes me) Al Franken drills the points home as part of the Senatorial committee. Here is a video of what he had to say …it brings up some straight-talking points. (And by the way, having worked for TV and movie studios, I can back him up on what he says about them.)
