It seems like forever ago that we first heard about Comcast’s intentions to buy NBC Universal. Now comes word that the deal could be approved by the FCC and Justice as early as next week. At issue is how Comcast intends to handle the availability of web TV and movies. For instance, NBC owns a third of Hulu.com but if Comcast takes over, they could try to block Hulu content from non-Comcast ISPs or they could charge their own customers extra for seeing things that aren’t connected to NBC.
US government is considering forcing Comcast to sell NBC’s Hulu stake as a stipulation for the deal to go through, and moreover, they may insist that Comcast provide online access to NBC Universal’s content library without a cable sub.
Comcast as owners of NBC would not want people cutting the cable and going with streaming content, that would plug up their internet pipes and make extra work and it would cut into the fat profit margins they already have on cable.
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