Comcast’s $30 billion deal for NBC Universal has hit a road bump
The Federal Communications Commission has pushed off consideration of the deal for a month to six weeks so Comcast can prepare two additional reports justifying the deal’s economic benefits.
Because those reports aren’t yet finished and the agency wants to get public reaction to them, the FCC is pushing back its timetable for the deal’s review.
Originally the FCC set May 2 as the deadline for filing initial comments and petitions to deny the deal. Then the FCC set June 3 as the date for responses and finally June 17 as the date for any replies to the responses.
Now the clock will start when Comcast files the two reports.
The deadline for initial comments will be 45 days after Comcast files the reports. The deadline for response comments will be a month later, and the last deadline two weeks later — most likely late July.
Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast's vice president of government communications, said the cable giant went along with the FCC’s request for a delay because of the specific situation.
“We look forward to working with the Commission to submit the additional information they’ve requested. We know they want to conduct a thorough and expeditious review of this transaction and we’ll be submitting these reports as soon as possible. We understand and agree in this case with the commission’s desire to have a full comment period on key documents submitted by the applicants.”
The FCC is reviewing the “public interest” implications of the deal. The Justice Department is conducting a separate anti-trust review of the deal.
Comcast and NBCU hope to close the deal late this fall.
