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Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast logo

DarthTom

DarthTom

Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Comcast has now cemented its ability to program its cable franchise and also lands the trophy location of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It will be odd for the GE logo to go down and Comcast logo to now be in the NY skyline:

ETA: I surprised that the FCC is allowing this to happen because this give Comcast virtually monopoly control [in some markets] of local TV programming and both delivery via internet and cable of that programming.

comcast_zpsa16a0a5d.jpeg


Huffington
LOS ANGELES — Comcast is buying the rest of NBCUniversal from General Electric several years ahead of schedule to take advantage of low interest rates and what its CEO calls a "very attractive price" of $16.7 billion.
The nation's leading cable TV company also agreed to pay GE another $1.4 billion for other assets that include one of New York's best-known landmarks, NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The building also was the setting for the NBC comedy series "30 Rock," a fictional version of the broadcast network that skewered the management of both GE and Comcast before airing its final episode two weeks ago.
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Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

The FCC's been asleep at the wheel for years. Media consolidation? Meh. Who cares?
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

I guess Roberts is simply continuing to keep things cozy with whoever is sitting in the Oval Office. This is not a relationship that is good for our media.

From an article in ThinkProgress by Lee Fang (November 5, 2010):
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2010/11/05/128695/burke-comcast-msnbc/

Comcast – the country’s largest provider of cable TV and broadband Internet services – has increased its political giving along with its mergers and acquisitions. CEO Brian Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the 2000 Republican Convention. Comcast Cable President Stephen Burke has raised at least $200,000 for Bush’s re-election campaign. [...] Comcast’s political giving has increased along with its mergers and acquisitions. The company was a “platinum sponsor” at the 2000 GOP convention, and Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the Philadelphia event. Burke was appointed to the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology in 2002.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Robert D. Robot said:
I guess Roberts is simply continuing to keep things cozy with whoever is sitting in the Oval Office. This is not a relationship that is good for our media.
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In Philadelphia for example not only is Comcast the only cable provider but they also own through the NBC acquisition the local NBC station and the Philadelphia 76'ers.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

NBC is quickly becoming irrelevant. The biggest change that will happen will be the likely addition of the Comcast logo to the top of 30 Rock...a net plus for the network.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

...And suddenly the purchase of NBC by Kabletown in "30 Rock" is that much more prophetic. Even the logos are similar. Or was that an intentional jab?

Mark
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Mark_Nguyen said:
...And suddenly the purchase of NBC by Kabletown in "30 Rock" is that much more prophetic. Even the logos are similar. Or was that an intentional jab?
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It was intentional.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Ahh, ok. Now that just makes the Sheinhardt Wig Company even more oblique as a reference..?

Mark
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

It's almost like they were waiting for for 30 Rock, the sitcom, to go off the air so they wouldn't be bullied and ridiculed... Unless Kabletown is code for Comcast and this has been in the works for a couple years now?
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Robert Maxwell said:
The FCC's been asleep at the wheel for years. Media consolidation? Meh. Who cares?
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Yes, and its not just the FCC. The feds have been asleep at the switch about antitrust in pretty much every industry.

That being said, I personally think a monopoly on the information dissemination is a lot worse than a monopoly on, say, cars.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Guy Gardener said:
It's almost like they were waiting for for 30 Rock, the sitcom, to go off the air so they wouldn't be bullied and ridiculed... Unless Kabletown is code for Comcast and this has been in the works for a couple years now?
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Kabletown IS code for Comcast and this HAS been in the works for a couple of years now.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

Yes "really". The Telecommunications Act of 1996 stripped pretty much every monopoly and duopoly regulation. Before a company couldn't own more than a radio station, TV station, and newspaper in a media market. It's the law that allows for a Clear Channel to own over 800 radio stations (down a bit from it's peak of 1200 a decade ago). It lets CBS own 5 radio station and a TV station in some markets.

What Moyers is talking about is a further relaxing of the rules.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

So clearly at least some of the rules still exist. Otherwise there would be nothing to relax now.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

It's been this way in Canada for years. Nearly every big network in Canada is owned by one of the big Cable companies.
 
Re: Comcast buys all of NBC - 30 Rockefeller Plaza will have Comcast l

the G-man said:
So clearly at least some of the rules still exist. Otherwise there would be nothing to relax now.
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Yes, and I never said "no rules exist", just that the media consolidation rules don't apply here.
 
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