Comcast Agrees To Online Access Condition For Unaffiliated Nets

According to a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast will agree to make an online access provision, though one involving outside suppliers rather than its owned content, a binding condition on its proposed Comcast/NBCU deal.

Comcast says that its contracts already generally allow unaffiliated nets to make content available online, but "to assuage any concerns in this area," it will agree to the following-worded condition, subject to some caveats: “Comcast will not require unaffiliated content suppliers, as a condition of carriage on Comcast cable systems, to refuse to sell their programming to MVPDs and Online Video Distributors (‘OVDs’).” The caveats are that "Comcast should have the right, consistent with industry practice, to require that unaffiliated content suppliers not provide their programming for free over the Internet during an initial window," that the company "should also have the right to obtain from content suppliers parity treatment with other distributors, online or otherwise," and that "Comcast should be able to negotiate for a limited period of exclusivity for promotional programming."