Comcast/NBCU Venture Could Draw Washington Scrutiny

[Multichannel News]

What obstacles might a Comcast and NBC Universal joint venture have to clear in...

More...

 

[bicker]

No question that this would draw scrutiny... and in the normal course of the process would probably garner some conditions placed on the deal. However, I think in this case, especially from what I've been reading the last 24 hours, this deal is going to be greatly affected by FUD. More and more Americans are becoming politically schizophrenic: When they're buying stuff, they want everything structured in a pro-consumerist way. When they're saving for college or retirement, they want everything structured in a pro-capitalist way. A typical Comcast customer, with some money in a mutual fund that invests in Comcast, essentially wants to have their cake and eat it too.

However, given the credit crisis and the recession, I believe there is a lot more pro-consumerist sentiment in the country right now than there is pro-capitalist sentiment. This is an unfortunate time for Vivendi to force this deal to happen.