Congressional Report Anticipates Comcast/NBCU Approval

A confidential report to Congress on Comcast's proposed deal for control of NBC Universal -- issued in advance of the Feb. 2 hearings on the transaction -- raises issues on both sides of the debate, but starts from the premise that the deal will go through.

"There is consensus that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are likely to approve the combination subject to merger conditions and/or license conditions - intended to protect competition, diversity of voices, and localism - that may significantly affect the impact of the combination," wrote a telecommunications policy specialist with the Congressional Research Service, who declined to discuss the report citing its confidentiality. CRS reports are not made public by the agency, but are sometimes released by the members of Congress for whom they were prepared. In this case it was prepared for all members - there were hearings in both the House and Senate. According to a copy of the report, the document identifies the issues most likely to draw scrutiny from the FCC as program access, programming costs, the potential for favoring owned content over independent content, migrating NBC to a cable network, and, on the plus side, what possible new business models could be crafted to benefit consumers. As to the thought that NBC will become a cable network, the report suggests that is not likely to happen unless the marketplace changes significantly. It cites "the strong trend" of broadcasters getting cash for retransmission consent, as well as "the continued strong demand for local news and sports programming and the strong branding associated with local broadcast stations, as well as the criticism Comcast would face if it abandoned local programming and free, over-the-air programming."