2. Robert Edelstein, “Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal,” Broadcasting and Cable, October 20, 2009, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/hof/1603-Jeff_Zucker.php.
3. Staci D. Kramer, “Zucker Will Leave NBCU Following Comcast Merger; All About Burke Now,” PaidContent.org, September 24, 2010, http://paidcontent.org/article/419-zucker-will-leave-nbcu-following-comcast-merger/.
4. Claire Atkinson, “NBC Boss Eyes $30M+ Exit Deal from Comcast,” New York Post, June 2, 2010, available at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/see_ya_zuckers_5oBszoRLEkIzFgg7px5IFN.
5. Frazier Moore, “Two Media Companies, Two Bosses Exiting,” Associated Press, September 24, 2010, available at http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2010/09/24/2_media_companies_2_bosses_exiting/.
6. Andrew Wallenstein, “Was Jeff Zucker Really So Bad for NBC Universal?” PaidContent.org, January 28, 2011, http://paidcontent.org/article/419-was-jeff-zucker-really-so-bad-for-nbc-universal/.
7. “The Comcast/NBC Universal Merger,” 11 (2010) (Statement of Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal).
8. Amy Chozick and Brian Stelter, “Comcast Rises on Cable; Film Helps Time Warner,” New York Times, November 2, 2011, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/business/media/internet-customers-and-advertising-sales-bolster-comcasts-profits.html.
9. Jon Lafayette, “An Amazing Story of Cable Network Margins,” Broadcasting and Cable, November 22, 2011, http://www.navigationpartnersllc.com/an-amazing-story-of-cable-network-margins/.
10. “Corporate Info,” NBC.com, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/Corporate_Info.shtml.
11. Jeff Gerth and Brady Dennis, “Loophole Helps GE Benefit from Bank Rescue Program,” Washington Post, June 29, 2009 available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955.html?sid=ST2009062803183; Rachel Layne and Rebecca Christie, “GE Wins FDIC Insurance for up to $139 Billion in Debt,” Bloomberg, November 12, 2008, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3I211f0pz9s&dbk; Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, “The Killer G's: Resolution Authority, Financial Stabilization, and Taxpayer Bailouts; Research Note,” April 23, 2010, available at http://www.cambridgewinter.org/Cambridge_Winter/Welcome_files/killer%20g's%20042310.pdf.
12. Rachel Layne, “GE Exiting NBC Universal Brings Immelt Cash,” Bloomberg, December 3, 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMzZBVMqKcHc.
13. “Chief Executive Says GE Won't Sell NBC Universal,” Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2008, available at http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/12/business/fi-ge12.
14. Ibid.
15. “NBC Universal History,” NBC Universal, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/about-us/history/; Moore, “Two Media Companies.”
16. Layne, “GE Exiting NBC Universal.”
17. Glenn Greenwald, “The Scope—and Dangers—of GE's Control of NBC and MSNBC,” Salon, August 3, 2009; Brian Stelter, “Voices from Above Silence a Cable TV Feud,” New York Times, July 31, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/media/01feud.html?_r=2&src=twt&twt=nytimes,
18. Jonathan Blakely, “Connecting Dots: Obama Seeks Big Picture to Frame an Agenda,” ABC News, January 25, 2010, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/connecting-dots/.
19. Julianna Goldman and Rachel Layne, “Obama Asks GE's Immelt to Head Economic Advisory Panel, Replacing Volcker,” Bloomberg, January 21, 2001, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-21/obama-taps-ge-s-immelt-for-economy-panel-replace-volcker.html.
20. Tim Arango, “Vivendi's Stake in NBC Universal May Be Sold,” New York Times, September 18, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/business/media/19electric.html; banking industry employee, interview with the author, July 2010.
21. Bob O'Brien, “GE Shares Pitch to 14-Year Low,” Barron's, February 20, 2009, http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2009/02/20/ge-shares-pitch-to-14-year-low/.
22. Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tim Arango, “In Secret Meetings, Comcast Wooed G.E. and Won NBC,” New York Times, December 2, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/business/media/03nbc.html.
23. Ibid.
24. “Mrs. Donaghy,” 30 Rock, Season 5, Episode 11, NBC Universal, January 20, 2011.
25. Sorkin and Arango, “In Secret Meetings.”
26. Sharon Waxman, “Exclusive: Comcast in Talks to Buy NBC-Universal,” The Wrap, September 30, 2009, http://www.thewrap.com/deal-central/article/exclusive-comcast-buy-nbc-universal-general-electric-8002.
27. Banking industry employee, interview with the author, July 2010.
28. Mitchell Stephens, “History of Television,” Groiler Multimedia Encyclopedia, 2000 ed., accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm.
29. Television History—The First 75 Years, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.tvhistory.tv.
30. Edmund Lindop and Margaret J. Goldstein, America in the 1940s (Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2010), 106.
31. Television History—The First 75 Years.
32. Radio Corporation of America, “RCA-NBC Firsts in Color Television, a Chronological List of Significant Firsts by the Radio Corporation of America and the National Broadcasting Company in Color Television,” news release, March 27, 1955, available at http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html.
33. Stephens, “History of Television.”
34. Robert Abelman and David J. Atkin, The Televiewing Audience: The Art and Science of Watching TV (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 81.
35. Senator Al Franken, “Franken Statement from Hearing on NBC/Comcast Merger” news release, February 4, 2010, http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=483.
36. Ibid.
37. William T. Bielby and Denise D. Bielby, “Controlling Prime-Time: Organizational Concentration and Network Television Programming Strategies,” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 47 (2003): 583.
38. William M. Kunz, Culture Conglomerates: Consolidation in the Motion Picture and Television Industries (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 159.
39. Senator Al Franken, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.
40. Bielby and Bielby, “Controlling Prime-Time” Franken, “Franken Statement.”
41. “Competition in the Media and Entertainment Distribution Market”: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 111th Cong. 137 (2010).
42. “Corporate Info,” NBC.com.
43. David B. Wilkerson, “NBC Universal's Quarterly Profit Plunges 30%,” Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2010, available at http://articles.marketwatch.com/2010-01-22/industries/30771774_1_nbc-universal-financial-officer-keith-sherin-operating-profit; Marc Graser, “GE Earnings Drop 19% in Fourth Quarter,” Variety, January 22, 2010, available at http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014177?refCatId=3765; “Competition in the Media and Entertainment Distribution Market,” 111th Cong. 13 (Joint Written Testimony of Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Comcast Corporation and Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal).
44. Robert Seidman, “The Reason Why NBC Universal Is Losing So Much on the Olympics: It Paid Too Much for Them!” tvbythenumbers.com, February 14, 2010, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/02/14/the-reason-why-nbc-universal-is-losing-so-much-money-on-the-olympics-it-paid-too-much-for-them/.
45. “Is Free TV Coming to an End?” CBSnews, December 29, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/29/entertainment/main6032487.shtml.
46. Suzanne M. Kirchhoff, “Advertising Industry in the Digital Age” (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, November 9, 2009), available at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40908.pdf.
47. Todd Spangler, “Cable Network Advertising up 16% in 2009: Nielsen,” Multichannel News, April 28, 2010, http://www.multichannel.com/article/451991-Cable_Network_Advertising_Up_16_In_2009_Nielsen.php.
48. Diane Mermigas, “5 Strategies Co
mcast Needs to Pursue,” Mediapost.com, May 14, 2010, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/128278/.
49. Nellie Andreeva, “2011 Basic Cable Ratings: USA Still on Top, History & FX Up, Nick at Nite & TBS Down,” Deadline.com, December 28, 2011, http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/2011-basic-cable-ratings-usa-still-on-top-history-fx-up-nick-at-nite-tbs-down/.
50. Nikki Finke, “Jeff Zucker Fired by Steve Burke: Comcast ‘Wanted to Move on’ After Merge; NBCU Chief Emails Staff About Forced Exit,” Deadline.com, September 24, 2010, http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/cnbc-zucker-wont-make-comcast-merger/.
51. NBC Universal, “NBC Universal Cable Networks.” NBC.com, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.nbc.com/nbc/NBC_Universal_Cable_Networks/; “About Bravo,” Bravotv.com, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.bravotv.com/about-bravo; “About CNBC U.S.,” CNBC.com, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.cnbc.com/id/15907487/.
52. “General Electric Company Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript,” Seeking Alpha, January 22, 2010, available at http://seekingalpha.com/article/183965-general-electric-company-q4-2009-earnings-call-transcript.
53. Mermigas, “5 Strategies Comcast Needs to Pursue.”
54. Brian Stelter, “NBC-Comcast Deal Puts Broadcast TV in Doubt,” New York Times, December 7, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/business/media/07nbc.html.
55. Federal Communications Commission, “General Cable Television Industry and Regulation Information Fact Sheet,” June 2000, available at http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/facts/csgen.html.
56. Kunz, Culture Conglomerates, 175.
57. Seth Schiesel, “In Cable TV, Programmers Provide a Power Balance,” New York Times, July 16, 2001, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/business/in-cable-tv-programmers-provide-a-power-balance.html?pagewanted=all.
58. “Television Viewers, Retransmission Consent and the Public Interest”: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Communications, Technology and the Internet of the S. Comm. on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 111th Cong. 23–45 (2010).
59. Jesse Ward, “Fox vs. Cablevision,” National Telecommunications Cooperative Association: New Edge, October 18, 2010, http://www.ntca.org/new-edge/video/fox-vs-cablevision.
60. Joe Flint, “Washington Weighs in on Disney-Cablevision Fight,” Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2010, available at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/03/washington-weighs-in-on-disney-cablevision-fight.html.
61. Bruce Edward Walker, “Proposed Retransmission Rules May Ease Broadcast Blackouts,” Heartlander, May 31, 2011, http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2011/05/31/proposed-retransmission-rules-may-ease-broadcast-blackouts.
62. Wayne Friedman, “Kagan: Retrans Revs Are Future Goldmine,” MediaPost Publications, January 5, 2009, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/97766/kagan-retrans-revs-are-future-goldmine.html?print; Sergio Ibarra, “Analyst Sees Stations’ Retrans Revenue Tripling,” TV Week, January 5, 2009; “SNL Kagan Releases Broadcast Retransmission Fee Projections through 2017,” PRWeb, May 25, 2011, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8483711.htm.
63. Ryan Nakashima, “CBS Sales of Shows Partially Offset Drop in 3rd-Qtr Ad Revenue; Moonves in Talks with Oprah,” Associated Press, StarTribune.com, November 5, 2009, http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=69314097; Scott Canon, “In a Tangled TV Market, It's Hard for Rivals to Uproot Established Cable Providers,” Kansas City Star, July 18, 2010.
64. Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Vintage, 2004), 140.
65. CBS Corporation, “CBS and Comcast Sign Ten-Year Content Carriage Agreement,” news release, August 2, 2010, http://www.cbscorporation.com/news-article.php?id=666.
66. Applications and Public Interest Statement of Comcast Corporation, General Electric Company, and NBC Universal, Inc., In the Matter of Applications for Consent to the Transfer of Control of Licenses, Federal Communications Commission, May 4, 2010, 121; Competition in the Media and Entertainment Distribution Market”: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 111th Cong. 137 (2010), 147.
67. “Cable: E!” NBC Universal, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.nbcuni.com/cable/e.
68. In November 2009, John Malone characterized the deal as “heavily engineered” to fit the needs of GE and Comcast. See “John Malone and David Faber,” video of interview, 37:54–38:28 CNBC, November 23, 2009, http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1340949341 (“It's a heavily engineered deal; [it] obviously was custom-tailored for both sides’ needs. The way I see it, it de-leverages GE, and allows them to get their basis out of the whole thing, and then to the degree they want to sell down in the future, it's going to be nicely profitable. For Brian, it's a way to get into content, and get some market power in content, without betting the farm. He can easily afford the cash that's going in. He's getting a mark-up on the programming assets he's putting in. And Vivendi is probably going to walk away with a little more money than they could expect. So they're probably pretty happy. So I think it's custom-tailored for the needs of the participants.”).
69. Kelly Riddell and Rachel Layne, “Comcast, GE Value Cable Channels at Up to $7 Billion” (Washington, D.C.: Benton Foundation, December 1, 2009), http://benton.org/node/30166; David Goldman and Julianne Pepitone, “GE, Comcast Announce Joint NBC Deal,” CNNMoney, December 3, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/03/news/companies/comcast_nbc/index.htm.
70. David Carr, “A Big Deal, but Not a Good One,” New York Times, October 25, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/business/media/26carr.html.
71. Liberty Media Corporation, “Q1 2011 Earnings Call,” transcript, May 6, 2011, http://www.morningstar.com/earnings/PrintTranscript.aspx?id=27506514.
72. “Examination of Cable Rates”: Hearing Before the S. Commerce, Transportation and Science Committee, 105th Cong. 6 (1998) (Testimony of Rep. Billy Tauzin); Jeremy Feiler, “RCN out to Block Comcast,” Philadelphia Business Journal, August 19, 2002, available at http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2002/08/19/story7.html?page=3.
73. Applications and Public Interest Statement of Comcast Corporation, General Electric Company, and NBC Universal, Inc., In the Matter of Applications for Consent to the Transfer of Control of Licenses, Federal Communications Commission, January 28, 2010, 83.
74. Chernow, Titan, 553.
Chapter 7. The Programming Battering Ram
Epigraph. Dan Shanoff, “Comcast-NBC: Online Sports Juggernaut?” DanShanoff.com, December 3, 2009, reposted January 18, 2011, http://www.danshanoff.com/2009/12/comcast-nbc-online-sports-juggernaut.html.
1. “InterMedia's Hindery Interview on Social Media,” Bloomberg, video, May 27, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/video/70253338/; “John Malone and David Faber,” video of interview, 39:00–40:00, CNBC, November 23, 2009, http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1340949341.
2. Associated Press, “Comcast-NBC Merger Without Question ‘Biggest Thing’ in Last 40 Years of Broadcasting,” National Sports Journalism Center, December 28, 2009, http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/comcast-nbc-merger-without-question-biggest-thing-in-last-40-years-of-broadcasting/.
3. “’We intend to use sport as a battering-ram in all our pay-television operations,’ said Mr Murdoch a couple of years ago,” “Murdoch United,” The Economist, September 10, 1998, available at http://www.economist.com/node/164106.
4. In the Matter of General Motors Corporation and Hughes Electronics Corporation and The News Corporation Limited for Authority to Transfer Control, 19 F.C.C.R. 473, 535 (January 14, 2004).
5. Charles B. Goldfarb, The Proposed Comcast-NBC Universal Combination: How It Might Affect the Video Market (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, February 2, 2010), 13.
6. In the Matter of General Motors Corporation, 19 F.C.C.R. 473, 537.
7. In the Matter of Applications for Consent to the Assignment and/or Transfer of Control of Licenses, 21 F.C.C.R. 8203, 8259 (July 21, 2006).
8. In 1997, SportsNet launched as “a continu
ous seven-day-a-week, 12-month-a-year potpourri of area sports with the focus on the 76ers, Flyers, Eagles and Phillies,” reported Mike Bruton, “Comcast's Sportsnet Premieres,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1997, available at http://articles.philly.com/1997-10-02/sports/25540320_1_sportsrise-comcast-sportsnet-leslie-gudel. In 2010, CSN Houston became Comcast's ninth regional sports network. See “CSN Houston Marks Comcast's Latest Regional Sports Network,” Sports Business Daily, November 9, 2010, http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2010/11/Issue-42/Sports-Media/CSN-Houston-Marks-Comcasts-Latest-Regional-Sports-Network.aspx. “Comcast SportsNet (CSN) includes CSN Bay Area, CSN California, CSN Chicago, CSN Philadelphia, CSN New England, CSN Mid-Atlantic, CSN Northwest, CSN Southeast, CSN Southwest, SportNet New York (partial), MountainWest Sports Network (partial), CSS (partial)” (“Who Owns the Media: Media Ownership Charts: Cable and Telecommunications,” FreePress.net, last modified January 18, 2011, http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/cable).
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