The Joint Venture between NBC Universal and Comcast - Term Paper Example

The joint venture will combine the United States biggest cable broadband provider in Comcast with the programming domain of NBC Universal. The Federal Trade Commission, concerned with a possible monopoly situation, has placed conditions on the joint venture. General Electric will supply all of NBC Universal assets to the joint venture, valued at $30 billon, less about $9 billion in debt, and the joint venture will be managed by Comcast (Event Brief). Comcast will add its cable channels, regional sports networks, and two entertainment Internet sites, Fandango and Daily Candy valued at $7.

25 billion and with adjustments, Comcast will also invest approximately $6.5 billion in cash to the deal (Event Brief). This joint venture will allow Comcast to control the video content provided by NBC Universal in their cable and Internet systems. Comcast is engaged in the development and operation of cable, Internet, and telephony systems and the company has 23.8 million cable consumers, 15.7 million broadband Internet consumers, and 7.4 million Comcast telephone customers (Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company).

Comcast's networks comprises E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One, ten sports networks and a majority stake in Comcast-Spectacor, who posse the Philadelphia Flyers, the Philadelphia 76ers and two prominent multipurpose sports stadiums in Philadelphia (Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company). NBC Universal has possession of and manages a collection of information and entertainment networks, a movie company 4,000 films, television production operations with 3000 titles, and the Universal Studios theme parks (Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company).

When General Electric acquired NBC Universal, it had a broadcast network with one revenue source. Eventually NBC Universal developed a cable unit with CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, and Oxygen that now provides 78% of cash flow to the company (Event Brief). The new joint venture of Comcast and NBC Universal would bring together the major delivery capacity of Comcast in broadband cable, regional sports outlets with the exceptional content production and supply resources of NBC Universal (Event Brief).

The joint venture would immediately create a corporation that would be the biggest in the business. The joint corporation would provide services to 23% of American pay-TV households, 14% of cable programming, operate network-owned television stations that reach 27% of homes, posses a Hollywood film studio, amusement parks, and sports arenas (Hatch, David). This combined entity could have a significant influence on pricing and availability of content delivery by the competition. An economic study of the joint venture provided by the American Cable Association indicates that the combination of Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal would increase expenditure to customers by $2.

4 billion more than nine years because of increased fees for pay television service content ("ACA: Comcast-NBCU Deal Will Cost Consumers $2.4B."). The