Comcast Roundup: NBC executives named, the fallout and more

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Comcast, NBC argue against sharing with Internet TV [Post Tech: Washington Post] — “Comcast and NBC Universal executives met with senior officials at the Federal Communications Commission this week, urging the agency against conditions to their proposed merger that would require the new company to provide shows and movies to Internet video distributors.”
• Sanders Tells Regulators to Block Comcast-NBC Deal [Media Decoder: New York Times] — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders: “The sale of NBCU to Comcast would create an enormously powerful, vertically integrated media conglomerate, causing irreparable damage to the American media landscape and ultimately to society as a whole,” he wrote.”

Below, Comcast announcing NBC executives, is criticized by some for doing so and much more.

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Comcast Roundup: Who saved the NBC deal, enemy of Google and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

Yo, the Comcast news isn’t going to stop, even for Christmas Eve.

DEFINITE READS

The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez revives the storyline on how the Comcast-NBC Universal merger happened, beginning at the Four Seasons on the Ben Franklin Parkway and tying to Comcast’s CFO Michael Angelakis.

Reuters reports that Comcast may have shrewdly structured its deal with GE to allow for a cost-effective purchase of the remaining 49 percent of NBC by the middle of next decade.

Below, buying ice from the Spectrum and Google on net neutrality.

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Comcast Roundup: NBC Universal deal announced earlier this morning and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

• THE LEDE: As we reported this morning, Comcast announced it has purchased a 51 percent majority stake in NBC Universal from its current parent General Electric for $30 billion. Federal regulatory approval, which could take up to a year, remains, multiple reports say.
• The New York Times reported over the weekend that General Electric bought out French company Vivendi’s 20 percent stake in NBC for $5.8 billion, clearing the way for its deal with Comcast and fueling expectations for the move to become final.
• The Inquirer’s Mike Armstrong gives “props” — yes, props — to Comcast for aiming high. Most Philadelphia-based companies take big buy outs, Armstrong writes, but Comcast has been the only in a generation or more that has sought to and succeeded in dominating its industry. Think notorious Philly.com commenters responded?
• The New York Times digs deeper into how Comcast’s NBC acquisition will almost surely precipitate a move to bolster its sports programming to challenge ESPN. The USA Today reports that Comcast ought not try to compete with ESPN but instead find a new niche to blossom a newly branded sports channel.

After the jump, more fallout and a dozen other Comcast news pieces you need to know about.

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Abraham Lincoln loves technology and Philadelphia

Today is President’s Day, so why not tip your hat to perhaps the most technology-loving president in our nation’s history.

No, not iPod-tripping, Zune-dismissing, social media-loving Barack Obama, but Abraham Lincoln, who was born 200 years ago and has a particular affinity to Philadelphia, which has more monuments to Honest Abe than anywhere else.

Despite his image as a backward country bumpkin, turns out Lincoln was incredibly interested in technology, particularly for his time, access and education.

Find out how after the jump.

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