The government on Tuesday cleared the way for Comcast Corp., the country’s largest cable company, to take over NBC Universal in a deal certain to transform the entertainment industry landscape.
Comcast is buying a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal, home of the NBC television network, from General Electric Co. for $13.8 billion in cash and assets.
The Justice Department and five state attorneys general said Tuesday that they have reached a court settlement allowing the companies to proceed with their combination, subject to conditions intended to preserve competition among video providers.
In addition, the five-member Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted 4-1 to approve the transaction, subject to similar but broader conditions.
Among other things, the government is requiring Comcast to make NBC programming available to competitors such as satellite and phone companies, as well as new Internet video services that could pose a threat to the company’s core cable business. Officials want to guarantee that online video services from companies such as Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. can get the movies and TV shows they need to grow — and potentially offer a cheaper alternative to monthly cable subscriptions.
The government’s conditions will help ensure that the transaction cannot “chill the nascent competition posed by online competitors,” said Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department’s antritrust division.
Still, the conditions did not go far enough for Michael Copps, one of the three Democrats on the FCC and a vocal critic of media consolidation. Copps voted against the deal, warning that it “confers too much power in one company’s hands.”
Several public interest groups and at least a few members of Congress also decried the combination.
“This will ultimately mean higher cable and Internet bills, fewer independent voices in the media, and less freedom of choice for all American consumers,” Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said…