U.S. regulators approve Comcast-NBC deal

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Federal Communications Commission, on a 4-1 vote Tuesday, approved U.S. cable and Internet behemoth Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal.

The FCC determined the acquisition was in the nation's public interest, but assigned a number of conditions to the transaction to help ensure that Comcast shares content with competitors and gives other networks fair access to its legion of customers, The Washington Post reported.

Under the deal, Comcast will buy 51 percent of NBC Universal for $6.5 billion in cash and contribute cable channels valued at $7.25 billion to a joint venture that will own the entertainment company.

The joint venture combines a huge stable of television shows and movies under the control of the nation's biggest cable and broadband Internet service provider. Together the companies have 16.7 million broadband subscribers, about 23 million cable subscribers and dozens of popular channels, including Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and USA.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski OK'd the joint venture in December, saying the union would benefit consumers because Comcast promised to add 1,000 hours of news and informational programming to some channels, contribute $20 million in venture funds for minority programs and offer $9.95 broadband Internet service for poor households.

Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps, the lone dissenter, said the concentration of media under Comcast's control would invest too much power into one news and entertainment company and would have too many potential conflicts, the Post said.

The deal "reaches into virtually every corner of our media and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in the land," Copps said in a statement. "All the majority's efforts -- diligent though they were -- to ameliorate these harms cannot mask the truth that this Comcast-NBCU joint venture grievously fails the public interest."

The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday it settled with Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal, allowing their joint venture to proceed as conditioned. The department said the proposed settlement would preserve new content distribution models that offer more products and greater innovation, as well as the potential to provide consumers access to their programming through a number of devices and a broad selection of packages.

"The conditions imposed will maintain an open and fair marketplace while at the same time allow the innovative aspects of the transaction to go forward," Christine Varney, assistant attorney general overseeing the department's Antitrust Division, said in a release.

Comcast already agreed to increase the amount of space on its cable systems for independently owned channels, guarantee the independence of NBC News, increase children's programming and keep NBC TV programming on free, over-the-air TV channels.