Comcast Deal To Purchase NBC Is Complex

The tentative deal for cable TV giant Comcast to purchase a 51% share of NBC is a complicated deal meant to free up capital for GE to concentrate on their highly profitable jet engine and medical equipment businesses. But before GE can sell NBC to Comcast, GE has to purchase a portion of NBC that is currently owned by the French company, Vivendi. GE had to strike an agreement with the French company for a price to be paid. It's like a form of corporate musical chairs.

But beyond this complicated agreement, there are many issues to be raised. Satellite TV providers are unhappy that Comcast may attempt to control the access to some channels or programming with such a deal that allows them to own a network like NBC Universal which includes not only NBC, but cable TV channels such as the USA Network, TELEMUNDO, SYFY, CHILLER, MSNBC, CNBC and more channels. Comcast could become like a gate keeper for many entertainment channels and control the flow of entertainment to a near monopoly degree according to some fears of the satellite providers. However, that' probably unlikely, as Comcast would probably still provide service at some price to all other providers.

But there is also those nasty programming wounds that NBC self-inflicted on itself with their excessive cost cutting moves. THE JAY LENO SHOW has been a real ratings disaster for NBC and has even drug down the ratings for many other NBC shows. Even Conan O'Brien's serious TONIGHT SHOW ratings drop might even be partially blamed on Jay Leno's failure and dragging down the whole NBC brand. Comcast might have several options at hand: Buy out Jay's contract, which is unlikely. More likely is to move Jay to a cable channel and get a decent string of 10PM dramas back on the peacock network and rebuild NBC into a competitive channel once again.

But even on cable, NBC did serious damage to itself. The highly successful cable series MONK was killed off by the USA Network for no other good reason but cost cutting. Comcast would be real smart to continue the series. The show still has plenty of life left in it. It always seemed like a quirky little show that seemed cheap enough to produce. But NBC Universal wanted to spend even less money yet to put programming up on the network. The series finale of MONK last Friday pulled in an awesome 9.4 million viewers, proving what a mistake canceling the series really was. Those are huge figures for a cable TV show. In fact, awesome figures. MONK was like the flagship show over at the USA Network. Now, it's gone only because the network didn't like to spend money.

NBC Universal made a bad situation worse with their absurd cost cutting moves and canceling decent programs. Now, Comcast gets to buy this mess to fix. Good luck!