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Comcast In Deal Talks With NBC Universal
schwit1 sent us an LA Times article about another step in the seemingly unending media consolidation. This time it's Cable giant Comcast Corp. looking at NBC. NBC owns a slew of channels, including Bravo, USA and Syfy (who might have the single lamest rebranding since Spike). The article says that it would be far cheaper than the Disney deal Comcast tried to pull off 5 years ago.
Critiques of media consolidation involve a number of issues and notions:
That consolidation and globalization of media over the past decade have been massive.
That media consolidation is served by government deregulation and subsidization of
the airwaves.
That media consolidation and globalization are viewed as predecessors of global
capitalism.
That the bottom line of corporate media is profit, not content.
That media industries have become media oligopolies, that is, media conglomerates
are not agents of a democratic citizenry, but of a business and state elite.
That critiques of globalization and corporate power are marginalized.
That media audiences are treated as consumers rather than citizens.
That the traditional notion of media having a public interest obligation has
disappeared.
That democratically-based media outlets have expanded and while marginalized
provide an alternative to corporate media messages.
http://libr.org/amtf//bibliographies/bib.1.pdf
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Actually, cable-wise you pretty much *are* locked into them if they have the cable franchise in your city and you can't use satellite (your house faces the wrong way, live in an apartment, etc.). And even on the broadband internet side, most people only have 2 or 3 options at the most. In my city, if you don't go Comcast for broadband, the only other option is AT&T DSL (which is limited to a measly 3 Mbps in this city).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
As far as I'm concerned, Comcast is even more evil and untrustworthy as Microsoft, which is really saying something. Stay classy, Comcast!
It figures your experience was horrible. In the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Comcast has received the lowest customer satisfaction rating of any organization in the US, including the IRS.
In the beginning, there was null.