Internet issues bog down Comcast-NBC merger

One company is the nation's biggest cable TV provider. The other owns a TV network, several popular cable channels and a movie studio. But when it comes to the $30-billion merger of Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal, the regulators and lawmakers who will decide the fate of the deal aren't focusing on the big screen or the small screen. They're looking at the Internet.

Although there has been a lot of talk in media circles about what Comcast's ownership of NBC Universal would mean for viewers' choice of news and entertainment, the two branches of the federal government reviewing the merger -- the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission -- are more worried about what the combination means for the online world. The Web is shaping up to be the No. 1 issue in a mega media merger today, much the way battles over program diversity and commitment to news loomed over media mergers in the past.