The merger of Comcast and NBC Universal may lead to the undermining of independent news, sports and entertainment channels, charged Bloomberg LP in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog.
Bloomberg was joined by the Writers Guild of America, West, several advocacy groups, the National Consumers League and the Communications Workers of America in opposing the deal, while the Directors Guild of America told the FCC it supports the merger. The letter was also sent to the Justice Department, the article says.
"Bloomberg’s biggest concern is that Comcast will give CNBC a better channel position than its competitors. Of course, on most cable systems, including Comcast, CNBC already has a better channel position than Bloomberg. That is partly due to CNBC being over 20 years old and fairly entrenched in prime real estate, " the report points out.
I agree that the Comcast deal would be a detriment to all the hard work done by NBCU in partnership with GE. I believe that when GE purchased Universal and combined it with NBC, the cable channels involved has seen a dramatic rise in very good programming that I doubt could have been done without the merger. I would hate to lose all my favorite NBCU’s programming. My favorites since the merger are almost exclusively USA, SYFY, Bravo, Sleuth, MSNBC, & CNBC+. My main news source is now MSNBC rather than CNN. I am against the merger. Bob