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Comcast Buys Out GE's Remaining 49% Stake In NBC
Bob the Super Hamste writes "On Tuesday Comcast announced that it would accelerate its acquisition of NBCUniversal and purchase the remaining 49% owned by GE for $16.7 billion. Previously GE and Comcast were expected to operate NBCUniversal jointly until mid 2014 with Comcast having the option to extend that out until 2018. So far there are not details on when the deal with be completed but the article indicates that Comcast's complete acquisition of NBCUniversal will be completed years earlier that initially thought."
Kabletown
These people will become the 'federal government' of the internet.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I've been dealing with and reading about Comcast for a long time. This scares me. Already the country has forgotten about the obvious and egregious conflict of interest at the FCC. Face-palm. Comcast now has unprecedented access to the mind-share of the American public, from pre-production to eyeballs.
Comcast along with other companies like Disney, ClearChannel, etc. are not to be trusted. Be wary, my friends.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Pretty soon a handful of companies will own every old media outlet out there. Well, at least we still have the internet.
My ISP? Oh, it's Comcas.....oh shit.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Jack:The only thing I will be discussing with the House Subcommittee on Baseball, Quiz Shows, Terrorism, and Media is vertical integration.
Liz:What's vertical integration?
Jack:Imagine that your favourite corn chip manufacturer also owned the number one diarrhea medication.
Liz: That'd be great cuz then they could put a little sample of the medication in each bag.
Jack:Keep thinking.
Liz:Except then they might be tempted to make the corn chips GIVE you...
Jack:Vertical integration.
Comcast already killed off what little was left of TechTV on G4. Now it's going to be the "Esquire Channel" is some shit like that. All the good tech shows are online-only now.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Largest military industrial complex member sells propaganda wing to oligopoly softcore porn distributor.
It's what I like to call TV Entropy, and it's what turned the History Channel into Jesus'n Alienz, and SciFi into Wrasslin'.
Jesus'n Alienz was five years ago. Now the H channel is nothing but truckers, loggers, pawn shops, and "pickers". It actually makes me long for their bygone days of Jesus/Aliens/Nazis.
Comcast has a kind of monopoly as it is.
"A monopoly (from Greek monos (alone or single) + polein (to sell)) exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity (this contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a good or service, and with oligopoly which consists of a few entities dominating an industry)." Technically Comcast is part of an oligopoly at best. Their is direct competition in Comcast markets with AT&T, Dish, Direct TV, Fios, and in some areas such as Those in Michigan, a competing cable provider like WOW (http://www.wowway.com/). With the number of providers available it is hard to really even claim oligopoly. People go after cable franchising as monopolistic (if that's even a word), and with good reason, it would be if that was the only means by which to provide these services. It's not.
Disagreeing with you does not make me a troll.
How about a new name at least? I vote for "Weylan-Yutani."
Syfy is owned by NBC, and Comcast has already made changes there.
Syfy's Eureka series debuted in 2006. I was never a big fan, but it looked like it had promise, gained a following and did well. They'd throw out occasional references to things like the LHC and CERN, had Joe Morton (who played Miles Dyson in Terminator 2) as a regular character, and even brought in our buddy (and by that I mean he reads and posts on Slashdot) Wil Wheaton toward the end.
Comcast purchased a majority stake in NBC in January 2011. By August, Eureka was cancelled. The show had good ratings, good viewership, and was considered "the golden child" of Syfy, but Comcast killed it because it was not profitable enough. It wasn't losing money, but Comcast decided that if you have to spend money on special effects to sell the show to viewers, there are lots of cheaper, more profitable ways to get viewers' attention.
With Comcast poised to take full control of NBC sooner, expect more of the shows that drive Syfy's viewership to be cancelled in the next couple of years, and if they take it far enough eventually Syfy may go away.
ja...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You can watch all the NBC you want; but after 250 hours your viewing will be reduced to MSNBC.
That isn't true for everyone. I know a lot of people who only have one option. If my line of sight was blocked I'd have exactly one potential tv provider, and blocked line of sight is common in my area. For internet, I have precisely two choices: The cable monopoly and the bastard step-grandpa of US West, whoever they are this year. CenturyLink (had to look it up)
Plain internet is $50 and up, and I am envious of people I know who live somewhere with competition.
I have one choice for tv, one choice for a landline, and two choices for internet which both conveniently charge the same inflated price. That is close enough to a monopoly to give them monopoly pricing on most of their services.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Maybe we'll see a corporate mandated breakup of the government.