Comcast’s proposal to take over NBC Universal has attracted no shortage of controversy. This week, the cable giant submitted the necessary filings with the regulatory agencies that will ultimately have to sign off on the deal, and critics of the merger said once again that it stinks to high heaven.
Datamation takes a look at their objections, and what Comcast has to say in its own defense.
Comcast this week filed the requisite paperwork with two federal agencies to begin a formal review of its proposed merger with NBC Universal, sparking a new wave of criticism from some of the advocacy groups that have launched a concerted campaign to scuttle the transaction.
Earlier this week, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) provided the Justice Department with its Hart-Scott-Rodino notification, a confidential pre-merger filing required for federal antitrust reviews.
Then on Thursday, the company delivered a public interest statement to the Federal Communications Commission, which would also have to sign off on the deal.
For critics, the deal signals a dramatic consolidation of the media landscape, aligning two major content and distribution players in an arrangement that threatens to reduce access to independent programming, drive up prices for consumers and undercut emerging forms of online video.
Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver called the FCC filing “positively Orwellian,” likening Comcast’s customer service to corporate villains Enron and Blackwater.