Sen Kohl outlines list of conditions to Comcast-NBC merger

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) has written a letter to Christine Varney, assistant attorney general and head of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski saying that if the regulators approve the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, they should include conditions to prevent injury to consumers and competitors.

Those conditions include:

1) The new company makes all Comcast and NBC Universal shows and channels available to all competitors (Time Warner Cable, Verizon's FiOs, DirectTV) on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. That condition would apply even if the FCC changes its program access rules.

2) Comcast and NBC would put up a "firewall" to prevent information sharing between Comcast and NBC regarding pricing or other contract terms offered by Comcast's competitors to purchase programming.

3) Comcast couldn't block out other programmers who want their content on Comcast. In other words, Comcast can't favor its programming over that of a competitor such as CBS. That condition would stay in place even if the FCC changed its program carriage rules.

4) Comcast couldn't prevent or coerce programmers from keeping their content off Web sites or Internet distributors as a condition for carriage on Comcast. That condition would allow for a reasonable "window" or programming, such as a first-run video, to be exclusive to Comcast, but only for a reasonable period.

5) Comcast would also have to make its NBC and Comcast programs and channels available via the Web to competitors on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms in the same way cable/satellite program-access rules apply.

6) Comcast divests NBC's 32 percent stake in Hulu within a year of the acquisition.

7) Comcast and NBC keep a firewall between advertising in markets where NBC owns and operates a broadcast station.

8) Net neutrality: Comcast couldn't discriminate or degrade the quality on its broadband network, any Internet distribution of programming that competes with Comcast or its TV everywhere program.