It’s been talked about for weeks and now it looks like the peacock will say ‘Peace out GE’ and ‘Hello Comcast.’ As reported by the L.A. Times, NBC Universal now belongs to the cable television giant Comcast Corp. Well, 51% of it does.
Originally, General Electric and Vivendi spilt NBC Universal 80/20. It wasn’t until a plan was devised to have NBCU borrow $9.1 billion with which GE could buy out Vivendi that this acquisition even became possible. Then, Comcast throws in its entertainment channels, like E! and Versus, nine regional sports networks and about $6.5 billion and, in return, the company gets 51% of the endeavor. As of now, that venture will still be called NBC Universal.
The next step is federal consent. This merger will be the first to be presented to the Obama administration seeking regulatory approval. The review process is expected to take at least a year, probably more. As reported by the New York Times, Comcast is already prepping its list of public interest elements which includes free over-the-air television and the effort to “preserve and enrich the output of local news, local public affairs, and other public interest programming” on NBC’s stations. With a significant amount of red tape to get around, it’s unlikely the acquisition will reach the hearings stage for quite time.
This $30 billion transaction puts Comcast on a whole new level. Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts explain, “This deal is a perfect fit for Comcast and will allow us to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform ‘anytime, anywhere’ media that American consumers are demanding." Yes, if the deal goes through, Comcast will become one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, but, from the general public’s standpoint, little will change. There’s some talk about experimenting with ‘windows’ – the time between the theatrical release of a film, the DVD release and the cable release – but such testing has been going on for quite some time and, for most, has gone unnoticed. The thing to do now is just sit back and wait. Short-term ripple effects will be minimal to non-existent; it’s the long-term ones we’ll have to keep an eye out for.
For more information, check out Comcast’s website devoted to everything and anything acquisition-related.
