Comcast Corp., Connecticut’s largest cable-TV operator, may have to sell some NBC television stations – including WVIT Channel 30 in West Hartford — or agree to have independent arbitration settle pricing disputes to get U.S. government approval for buying General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, according to Bloomberg News.
These are among the remedies the U.S. Federal Communications Commission or the Justice Department may require to ease fears about keeping television markets competitive following the $28 billion deal, antitrust analysts said.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, would get control of the NBC television network and broadcast stations and sports networks in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, six of the biggest U.S. television markets, plus West Hartford.
Comcast also would acquire NBC’s national cable networks, including Bravo, USA Network, MSNBC and CNBC, and national sports and Olympic Games programming.
Philadelphia-based Comcast’s power in key markets is “absolutely going to be a major concern” for officials, said Craig Moffett, an analyst at New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
FCC and Justice Department spokeswomen declined to comment on their agencies’ investigations.
GE is based in Fairfield.
Comcast in a filing said the markets in question are “major communities” that will have at least seven TV stations it won’t own after the transaction closes.
The deal “is pro-competitive, pro-consumer and strongly in the public interest,” Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
The public has until Aug. 5 to weigh in on the deal, which was announced in December. Thousands of comments have been filed with the FCC, including demands that Comcast sell Hulu, NBC’s video website, and calls for disclosing how much revenue the company receives from pornography.
