NBC Universal JV

Pressure is mounting on Comcast, with Sen Al Franken (D-MN) joining critics who say the cable giant’s streaming video service over the XBox console may violate open Internet access rules.

The Federal Communications Commission granted in part a complaint filed by Bloomberg claiming that its 24-hour business news channel, Bloomberg Television, is an “independent news channel” covered by the “news neighborhooding” condition adopted in the Comcast-NBCU Order. The FCC construes the terms of that condition and directs Comcast to carry Bloomberg consistent with the requirements of this order.

Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission that Bloomberg's claims it had relocated channels in violation of a non-networking condition in the NBCU deal is "demonstrably false."

Groups opposed to further media consolidation used Bloomberg's charges of Comcast non-compliance, and Federal Communications Commission non-enforcement, of an NBC-Comcast deal condition on news neighborhooding to argue against allowing the MSO and other cable companies to sell their spectrum to Verizon.

On any given day, on any given cable or satellite system, subscribers will see a message telling them that a favorite channel which had been in one spot on the channel lineup has been shifted to another. It happens all the time as channels are added, subtracted or moved around. It's not a big deal. Unless, of course, the cable channel in question is Bloomberg Television.

Comcast's ambitions extend far beyond simply turning NBCU into a well-managed business: executives believe they can transform the entertainment unit into a multimedia juggernaut that takes advantage of its parent's deep pockets, scale, and digital know-how. At the heart of the strategy? Sports. Bigtime, ratings-grabbing sports such as the Super Bowl and, yes, the Olympics.

Comcast will launch four minority-owned networks, including one led by former basketball player Magic Johnson and one proposed by rapper and producer Sean "Diddy" Combs.

When cable operator Comcast bought 51 per cent of NBCUniversal, the television and film group, many in the media industry doubted the marriage would be a happy one. Yet there are already signs Comcast is applying the same strategic acumen to its new content assets that helped make it the largest cable operator in the US. It has invested in new original programming, with shows such as The Voice, in an effort to turn round the struggling broadcast network. It secured critical sports rights at a cost of billions of dollars a year. And it has shown a willingness to redouble investment in businesses with which it was unfamiliar, such as films and theme parks.

Business media giant Bloomberg LP is marking the upcoming one-year anniversary of the government's approval of Comcast Corp.'s acquisition of NBCUniversal to remind regulators that it thinks the cable giant is disrespecting the feds.

A year ago, when Comcast was pushing through its multibillion-dollar mega-merger with NBC (with an assist from future in-house lobbyist Meredith Attwell Baker), the company promised that it wouldn't interfere with the news operations. It didn't say anything about possibly abandoning them altogether.

Bloomberg is giving the Federal Communications Commission props for its proposals to revise program carriage rules to speed complaint resolution, adopt baseball-style arbitration for impasses, and institute standstills for renewals and monetary "true ups" for instances of noncarriage.

At an American Bar Association Antitrust Section webinar, lawyers involved on all sides of the Comcast/NBCU merger approval agree that access to online video was a key to the conditions imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on the deal, and in the settlement the Department of Justice struck with Comcast to ameliorate the department’s competition concerns.

Bloomberg President Daniel Doctoroff asked the Federal Communications Commission to swiftly resolve the company's program carriage complaint against Comcast.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, has launched a new program aimed at reducing the digital divide, or the gap between high- and low-income communities in Internet accessibility and digital literacy.