Comcast: NBCU Deal Benefits Just About Everybody

The House Communications Subcommittee holds a field hearing in Chicago today to consider the Comcast-NBCU merger. (See Subcommittee briefing
)

The panel asks "Who benefits from the deal?" Comcast will answer today: the economy, everybody who gets multichannel video service, Comcast or a competitor, broadcast viewers, independent programmers, communities and others. That would appear to include all the constituencies that have raised red flags about the deal. Comcast Senior VP Joe Waz will testify that competition is "fierce" among programming distributors, and that the new company would have "no ability to restrict competition or otherwise harm the public interest." On the contrary, the deal stands to be a net plus for the public interest, he suggests, because the companies have made public interest commitments as part of the deal, and then "clarified, enhanced and supplemented" them following Comcast and NBCU executives' last appearance before the Committee Feb. 4.