Comcast and GE agree on valuation for NBC Universal

So, I'm guessing you're in favor of reregulating media, Jeff?

crazy horse said:
So now that comcast owns universal, does that mean when a ride breaks down it will take several days to get it fixed?

They won't be replacing any of the light bulbs with GE products.

I'm in favor of regulating ownership limits when there is a natural monopoly (cable) or a scarce resource (broadcast licenses) involved. It's these conditions that justified the regulation in the first place. That's the issue here... that for years legislators were waving a deregulation flag in a way that amounted to zealotry instead of actually looking at the underlying reasons for it in the first place. Former FCC chair Powell did nothing to help the situation.

At this point it's trying to put the water back in the bucket. I don't know if it could be successfully undone, but the deregulation of the radio industry was horrific. I'm all for deregulation of cable, phones, airlines, etc., but agree wholeheartedly that when the resource is both limited and supposedly owned by the American people, that it has to be protected.

On the other hand, it's nice to see a company decide it wants to get back to what it does best, and not think it needs and entertainment division or finance division to make money. I think a few more companies should do that.

Cable deregulation only just now makes sense, and even then, the fact that they don't have to open their "networks" the way that the phone companies do is problematic, to me. The cable industry has long been considered a content provider while phones have been considered a utility. Both are a scarce resource and natural monopoly because it's not cost effective to build over each other (not to say it doesn't happen, but it's relatively rare), and therefore should be treated the same. They're both just copper wires that provide content, phone and Internet now. The cable lobby has successfully evaded this reality for a long time.

Interestingly enough, the one market force that has managed to creep into the situation is exactly what I describe, that the phone and cable companies are in the same business, and therefore compete. But cable still has an upper hand because they don't have to let anyone use their copper.