Comcast was allowed to merge with NBC Universal earlier this year, PROVIDED the new entity follows some rules. Tuesday, Bloomberg filed a formal complaint with the FCC saying the media behemoth is violating those rules.
“Bloomberg argues that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, has exiled its financial news television network to cable-dial Siberia, far away from the “existing news neighborhoods” where it groups major news channels like MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox News.
Bloomberg’s dispute with Comcast goes to the heart of objections raised by critics of the NBC Universal deal, who had argued that Comcast could use its market power to favor its own channels to the disadvantage of rival programming, in this case Bloomberg TV.”
Comcast says Bloomberg needs to cool it. First, they’re not putting Bloomberg in Siberia. The company argues the conditions apply if it were to “neighborhood” channels in the future. So, we’ll have to wait and see what the FCC thinks.
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