M+E Daily
Comcast’s Deal For NBC Universal: Analysis Roundup
Story Highlights
It’s official: Comcast has signed an agreement to acquire a 51% stake in NBC Universal from General Electric, paying $6.5 billion in cash and contributing $7.25 billion in assets to create a new entertainment media conglomerate.
lays out the main points of the deal, detailing the broadcast, cable, and online networks that will be folded into the new Comcast Entertainment Group.
The Hollywood Reporter looks at what is expected to be a long regulatory review process in Washington — perhaps stretching beyond a year.
General Electric has the boilerplate on the deal as well as Comcast’s regulatory commitment letter, which calls the partnership “pro-competitive, pro-consumer, and strongly in the public interest.”
Broadcasting & Cable breaks related news of Comcast’s upcoming “Xfinity” online video service — which presumably comes under the “TV Everywhere” initiative the cable company announced with Time Warner earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal offers analysis on how Comcast may test new video-on-demand windows with movies from Universal Pictures — and how the studio’s relationships with Wal-Mart and other key DVD retailers, not to mention theater chains, could hamper such tests.
The Los Angeles Times profiles Comcast COO Steve Burke, who will work to fit the companies’ various and disparate entertainment assets into a cohesive entity.
Finally, The New York Times tells the story of the companies’ long courtship, from a golf course condominium in Sun Valley, Idaho to helicopters above New York and Philadelphia.
