Bloomberg Assesses Comcast's NBCU Deal Compliance

Bloomberg has provided its own assessment of Comcast's compliance with at least one NBCU deal condition. It says Comcast is favoring its own programming, has failed to comply with the news neighborhooding condition, and is avoiding compliance by asserting there are impediments to moving channels. It also says it has evidence of new neighborhoods from which its business news channel has been excluded.

That came in a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission commenting on Comcast's first annual report on its compliance with conditions in the NBCU merger, which Comcast submitted in February. In that report, Comcast said it had delivered, and in some cases over-delivered, on all its promises. Executive VP David Cohen blogged of the report when it was issued:"[O]ur commitments and the conditions, though extensive, have been incorporated into our business activities and become part of the company's 'DNA.'" Bloomberg saw a break in that DNA chain. It opined in the comments that it has spent more time (14 months) trying unsuccessfully to get Comcast to comply with the neighborhooding condition than it took the FCC to review and approve the deal, and said it has "fresh evidence" that Comcast is not living up to that neighborhooding promise.