NBC Universal JV

Comcast has completed its acquisition of the remaining 49% interest in NBC Universal it didn’t already own from General Electric for about $16.7 billion.

Comcast says 5,700 low-income families in the Philadelphia area are now participating in a discounted Internet service the cable giant agreed to offer as part of its merger with NBCUniversal.

News Corp and Walt Disney have begun discussions about resolving uncertainty over their jointly controlled online video site Hulu LLC, with one possible outcome being that one or the other company sells their stake.

NBCUniversal is in talks with several Internet video providers to license a full lineup of programming comparable to what it offers traditional pay TV providers, Comcast disclosed in its annual report to the Federal Communications Commission.

Comcast executives warned that TV programming costs could increase in the "low double digits" in 2013 - increases that likely will be passed to Comcast's TV customers - after increasing about 7 percent in 2012.

Comcast aims to secure for its shareholders the full rewards of a turnaround at NBCU before the division's success drives up its value. Comcast is also motivated by low interest rates, making cash a poor asset to hold and additional debt cheap to raise.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, will buy out General Electric’s ownership of NBC Universal for $16.7 billion, following through on the cable company’s purchase of a controlling stake two years ago.

NBC's symphony strategy is starting to hit a bad note.

In a partial defeat and partial victory for the company, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that NBC Universal cannot exclude films less than a year old from its Comcast/NBCU Order benchmark condition requiring NBCU to make its content available to competing online video distributors (OVD) if that distributor gets comparable programming from one of NBCU's peers not affiliated with that OVD. But the commission also said that requirement does not extend to such programming or other programing that would breach particular exclusive licensing agreements common to the industry.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company and the majority owner of NBC, said third-quarter profit more than doubled, boosted by advertising revenue, the sale of assets and fewer subscriber losses.

August 15 marks the start of the second year of Comcast’s Internet Essentials program. Comcast has reached a significant milestone: nearly 100,000 families or almost 400,000 low-income Americans are now connected to the Internet at home (most of them for the first time) because of this program.

Comcast created a new unit to house all of the news properties at its majority-owned NBCUniversal unit, naming a veteran media executive to run it. The new NBCUniversal News Group will comprise NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC and the Weather Channel.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau adopted a consent decree resolving the FCC’s investigation of Comcast Corporation’s compliance with certain broadband-related merger conditions imposed by the FCC’s Order approving the Comcast-NBCU transaction. The Bureau specifically negotiated an unprecedented year-long extension of the merger condition requiring Comcast to offer a reasonably priced broadband option to consumers who do not receive their cable service from the company. In addition, Comcast will pay an $800,000 voluntary contribution to the U.S. Treasury as part of the settlement.

The NBCUniversal Foundation and NBC Owned Television Stations will provide $1.2 million in grants to the top nonprofit organizations in NBC's owned station markets.