Comcast's ambitions

[Commentary] Comcast has amassed the country's largest cable TV operation, serving nearly one out of every four homes that pays for television programming. Yet it's not satisfied just to pipe entertainment and information to subscribers' TV sets and computers. It wants to own more of the content flowing through the systems it has built in California and 38 other states. Its latest gambit is a bid to control the entertainment assets of NBC Universal, including the NBC television network and Universal Studios. The proposed union is startling, given the companies' size and scope, yet its effect on the media landscape may be limited. There's no consensus on the wisdom of such combinations -- in fact, Viacom and Time Warner have gone in the other direction, spinning off their broadcast networks and cable TV systems. NBC's cable networks already have spots on Comcast's cable systems. And although Comcast might demand that other pay-TV services pay more for NBC Universal's content, it wouldn't have much more negotiating leverage than NBC Universal had on its own. After all, that leverage depends entirely on how popular the programming is, and it's been years since the peacock network's lineup was filled with must-see TV. The more interesting question is how NBC Universal's approach to the Internet would change under Comcast's control.