Watch CBS News

FCC, DOJ Approve Comcast Purchase of NBC-Universal

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Federal Communications Commission and the US Department of Justice have given Philadelphia-based Comcast Corporation the green light to buy NBC-Universal -- but with some restrictions.

The deal when first announced was so stunning that it became grist for the TV comedy "30 Rock."

(Alec Baldwin as NBC exec "Jack Donaghy":)   "How could a company from Philadelphia buy a company from New York?  That would be like Vietnam defeating the United States in a ground war."

Yet here it is.  Comcast immediately gets 51 percent ownership of NBC, its 10 television stations including WCAU-TV here in Philadelphia, and the programming motherlode that is Universal.

Paul Gluck is a professor of communications at Temple University.

"It's an enormous deal," Gluck told KYW Newsradio on Tuesday.  "It may very well change the nature of media as we know it, to have this much concenstrated content and distribution under one roof."

But Comcast had to agree to makes NBC programs available to its rivals and kick up its news commitment.

Gluck says we'll have to wait and see exactly what this will mean to consumers.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.