NBCUniversal can’t satisfy deal conditions requiring it to share...
NBCUniversal can’t satisfy deal conditions requiring it to share content with online video distributors under terms similar to those OVDs’ deals with NBCU’s industry peers without knowing the specifics of those agreements, said Comcast/NBCU in an ex parte FCC filing…
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Thursday (http://bit.ly/15qqD0r). Viacom, Disney and other companies filed an application for review of the condition and also a Media Bureau order clarifying it in January, and the bureau stayed the condition in March (CD March 8 p16). Disney and others have recently asked the bureau to continue the stay (CD Aug 13 p14). “NBCUniversal cannot satisfy that obligation unless it has appropriate access to the peer deal it is supposed to match,” said Comcast/NBCUniversal: “The need for access to a peer deal is implicit from the nature and purpose” of the merger’s benchmark condition. Access to peer deals shared under the benchmark condition will be restricted to outside counsel and experts, and NBCUniversal personnel aren’t permitted access, said Comcast/NBCU. The outside counsel and experts are also barred from “engaging in competitive decision-making activities and future employment involving Comcast or NBCUniversal,” said the filing. It said the process described in the benchmark condition and clarifying order “will enable NBCUniversal to comply with its obligations, and should make it more efficient for OVDs to obtain programming content as the Commission intended."