Comcast and NBC: Did the Feds fold?

Just what do the conditions on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger mean?

• Comcast must increase the diversity of the programming put out by the combined Comcast-NBC Universal venture -- more local news, more children's shows, more programming for Hispanic, African American and Asian American communities -- as well as adding room for more independent networks in its cable bundles.
• Comcast pledges to reach another 400,000 homes with its broadband service and offer a steeply discounted, $9.95/month plan for families with children eligible for free lunches in school under federal guidelines. It also will offer a standalone, no-TV-required broadband service with downloads of at least 6 million bits per second for $49.99 a month for three years, which Comcast said represented no change from the company's current practice.
• Comcast pledges to follow the basic network neutrality rules enacted by the FCC in December.
• Comcast promises to carry public-broadcasting stations at their current levels for "several years" if they elect to sell their spectrum back to the government under one possible provision of the FCC's national broadband plan.
• The FCC required a streamlined, binding-arbitration process to settle squabbles over what other TV providers should pay Comcast for its own channels, including the regional sports networks that have been the subject of numerous carriage disputes in recent years.
• The FCC and the DoJ secured non-discrimination conditions for how Comcast-NBCU will provide its own content for online distribution that rule out the worst abuses but may not upset the existing economic order. In the bargain, Comcast has to give up any control over Hulu, although it will retain its ownership role in that site.
• The conditions expire after seven years.

Could the FCC have done better? Probably not.