It’s possible that you’ll be seeing a change of ownership of your favorite NBC Universal shows like “Heroes,” “Battlestar Galactica,” and the whole SyFy channel because it’s possible that Comcast Corp is going to make a play for the whole shooting match: a major network and movie studio and powerful cable channels like MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. That would be a huge leap in content for Comcast which currently owns such channels as E! Entertainment Television and G4.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Comcast Corp, the nation’s biggest cable company, is in talks to buy NBC Universal. While there has been speculation over the future of NBC Universal, it is far from certain what will happen next.
This isn’t the first time that Comcast has made such a bid. Five years ago it attempted to buy Disney for $54 billion. The article states that “While NBC Universal is valued at up to $35 billion, Comcast has a market cap of $48 billion and about $4 billion in cash. This would make it a highly leveraged buyout of NBC Universal.”
In a story full of scenarios, The Times makes a very interesting comics-related point. It may turn out that Time Warner, owner of DC Comics, could be in the best position to be the ultimate buyer of NBC Universal.
For the complete story, visit The Los Angeles Times here.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:29 am
WOW…. that can only be bad….
From a year long battle with Comcast and there inability to give good internet service I fear for any company bought by this sad excuse for a company. And their customer service sucks!!!
October 1st, 2009 at 7:34 am
This is a massive conflict of interest. Now, just like anything else Comcast owns, they’re going to treat satellite customers like garbage – DirecTV customers just lost VS network because Comcast wants too high a licensing fee. If this keeps up, every cable or satellite provider will each have a bunch of exclusive content unavailable to anyone else (even if the service isn’t available in your area).
October 1st, 2009 at 7:45 am
Doubt that this will happen, NBC/Universal is owned by GE which is much bigger than Comcast, and I doubt that they have much interest in selling off NBC/Universal.
it is possible that Comcast (or maybe Time Warner) will buy a stake in NBC, but it’s unlikely that NBC will change hands anytime soon.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:59 am
NBC, CNBC and MSNBC are hemorrhaging cash and ratings. GE would do well to divest themselves of these albatrosses and help it’s own bottom line. So yes, I DO believe these liabilities are for sale, and they have to throw the Universal cable nets (that ARE profitable) to sweeten the deal.
Warner’s is in a good position, and the properties/franchises that the USA/SYFY, etc bring to the table are tempting, but you’d have to find something useful to do with the other networks in the package, and I don’t see Warner’s having the expertise to run two news channels and a dinosaur broadcast net.
But if they do, DC Entertainment will be working overtime to fill the pipes with content…. and that could be fun!
October 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
Just what we need more and more companies getting gobbled up to form larger and larger mega-corps.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
Just what we need. A BIGGER multimedia conglomerate. How the heck did Comcast become a bigger company than NBC/Universal?
October 1st, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Maybe i am missing some thing, how is this a good move for Comcast unless they make NBC a cable only channel?
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 am
This sucks. This could only be bad. Television back in the day was a whole lot better when there was only 6 to 8 (including UHF channels) channels to choose to choose from. Best part of it was that it was all FREE!!!! Now we have to pay for inferior television shows (with the exception of a few), most of which is reality TV (I hate that garbage). How the hell is that progress?!?!
I also agree that Comcast customer service sucks. They always jack up the rates on you for some bs reason. It’s only when you threaten to sign up with another cable service provider that they talk to you about their “deals and promotions.”
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:06 am
You are out of your damn mind if you really think television would be better if they were only “6 or 8 channels.”
imagine all the shows we would have missed if things went your way and cable didn’t exist.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 am
OBO: I said “with a few exceptions”, but most everything else is crap. Most of the good stuff is still on ABC, CBS and NBC. Just like it used to be. But even they have fallen into some of that reality show crap trap as have most others. Can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a reality show being on at any given time of the day.
I do have to say though, that the one huge benefit of cable is a damn good picture. Definitely don’t miss the rabbit ears.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
How did they get bigger than GE you ask. One of the ways has been by charging every customers 42.95 since adding internet . The cost price for company is only 2-3.00 per customer. So they have been hording all this revenue since around 1998 or 1999, this is also why they have never increased the price for internet in these past 8-10 years. They took a page out of AOLS overpriced book.