GE Intends on Selling NBC

[Dishman Dan]

On the news this morning they say that GE has struck a deal to unload their share (51%) of NBC to Comcast! This would be pending government approval of course and could be done by fall of 2010 if all goes through.

This could be good news and bad news for satellite TV, OTA, and I guess that thing called cable!
This would affect you no matter what method of TV you receive!

 

[Bill_KY]

I guess I'll miss the feeds on 103W then. Maybe they would put the feeds on cable (not sure on how that will work). I wonder if they will have a "Bandwidth cap" on NBC programming like they do with the internet. You know, watch too much NBC and there goes your quota for the month. Perhaps NBC programming would be restricted to cable only. Is that a bad thing?










(Sorry for the sarcasm...had to chime in....lol)

 

[skysurfer]

I think the deal is about a two years too late. I could see how the Bush white house would allow the deal to go through, but you'd think Obama's white house would determine the new company to be too powerful and deny the transaction. We're certainly going to find out how business friendly/unfriendly Obama will be in this one, and if he's business friendly it could lead to more mega M&A's.

 

[Anole]

Conan O'Brien did a salute to Comcast last night on his show.
It was pretty silly.
... as is the whole idea.

 

[Mikhel]

Conan O'Brien did a salute to Comcast last night on his show.
It was pretty silly.
... as is the whole idea.

LOL yep, he's been doing it for two or three days now, it's really funny, just as silly as when NBC bought Telemundo, and the whole idea for the "Conando Telenovela" was born, gotta love the guys writing all of his stuff.

M.

 

[classicsat]

103w feeds would go if NBC becomes a cable channel, which I heard is a possible plan. If NBC stays as a broadcast network, I don't see them moving to cable distribution satellites.

 

[turbosat]

The white house wouldn't oppose it, NBC is their official network. Some in Congress might make some noise about it.

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

Let's not resort to panicking and wild speculation. I think it's pretty premature to talk about people ordering engineers to scramble feeds (that hundreds of stations use to get their signals) or expecting NBC to drop OTA affiliates.

That being said, Comcast should stay far away from broadcast TV. They have enough service to overcharge and screw up as it is

 

[Cadsulfide]

GE is no doubt trading NBC to Comcast for A Senator, a couple of Representatives in key districts, and a handful of lobbyists.

 

[guapoharry]

If you look at what Comcast did to ZDTV / Tech TV, and project that to NBC, we are going to have a mess out there...

G4 is crap.

RIP NBC.

 

[BurlesonBlue]

Let me make it extremely clear why NBC will never, ever leave OTA.

1. NBC only owns ten of their 200 affiliates, and convincing the owners of the other 190 would be extremely difficult
2. For the 10 affiliates NBC does own, FCC license, cashflow, and market size determine the value of a station. Doing away with OTA means giving up all of that
3. Shutting down OTA operations would leave channels open for someone else to build a TV station on. NBC can't possibly be dumb enough to let that happen.

The main rationale for this deal would have to be carriage fees on all of the cable networks being purchased in this deal.

 

[toucan-man]

From a New York Times editorial,,,

Concerns About Comcast-NBC

"...Under current rules, Comcast could bar rival cable and satellite TV companies from access to desirable NBC shows, or it could offer them only at a high price, bundled with less-attractive content..."

A cable company screwing another cable company? Haha, use your imagination.

"...Yet the biggest potential threat from a combination of Comcast and NBC is to the development of video delivery over the Internet and its promise of à la carte programming — which promises to expand viewers’ choices, allowing them to elude the bundling strategies common to cable and satellite TV that force them to pay hundreds of dollars for content they do not want..."

Who let the enormous elephant into the room?