It’s official: Comcast now owns NBC Universal after a federal judge in Washington approved the controversial $30 billion acquisition late Thursday.
But in doing so, DC District Court Judge Richard J. Leon also expressed concern over the government’s ability to enforce the conditions put on the merger, and he imposed several new measures of his own.
The deal allows Comcast, the nation’s single largest cable television company and home internet service provider, to purchase a 51 percent majority stake in NBC Universal, one of the nation’s largest media production companies.
Together, they form the largest media company in the U.S. pulling in over $51 billion in revenue.
The merger, which was announced in December 2009, underwent what was deemed by federal regulators to be the most intense scrutiny ever for a media merger.
Both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission reviewed the merger, eventually granting it their approval in January, though they imposed several antitrust conditions pertaining to online video in an effort to maintain competition in the marketplace.
Those included forcing the newly-merged company to give up day-to-day control over (though notably not an ownership stake in) online TV and movie streaming website Hulu, a joint venture with News Corp.’s Fox TV division and Disney and investment firm Providence Equity Partners.
The newly combined company, known as just “NBCUniversal,” (without the space), is also required to share online video content with competitors such as Netflix and Apple, and can’t throttle Internet service for customers accessing rival sites, for seven years at least, NPR reported.
Judge Leon signed off on the merger Thursday. He also added a few of his own conditions, writing in a memo that “because of the way the Final Judgment is structured, the Government’s ability to ‘enforce’ the Final Judgment, and, frankly, this Court’s ability to oversee it, are, to say the least, limited…I believe that certain additional steps are necessary to monitor implementation of the Final Judgment to ensure that it satisfies the public-interest requirement mandated by statute.”
He also added a memorable line: “neither the Court nor the parties has a crystal ball to forecast how this Final Judgment, along with its arbitration mechanisms, will actually function.”
For at least the next two years, NBCUniversal will have to report to the Justice Department on how many online video companies initiate arbitration claims against NBCUniversal due to content disputes.
The report must be made available to all the parties, including the arbitrators. Annual hearings at the court have to be held “to explain and discuss the report and any other non-arbitration related issues that may have arisen during the previous year to ensure that the Final Judgement does, and continues to, satisfy the public interest.”
Comcast, through a spokeswoman, told Bloomberg that it is “pleased the court approved the consent decree.”
This post has been updated since its original publication to correct the spelling of “caveat” in the headline. We apologize for the error.
