Comcast Will Soon be Free of NBC Merger Conditions

Comcast will soon be free of many of the conditions attached to the company's 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal. As we've noted previously, most of those conditions were suggested by Comcast itself, and even then the cable giant struggled to adhere to them (like offering a standalone 6 Mbps tier for $50). Others were designed to keep Comcast from using its size and leverage to engage in anti-competitive behavior, such as restrictions that prevented Comcast and NBC from hamstringing Hulu, which is jointly owned by Comcast, Disney, Time Warner and Fox.

Now Bloomberg notes how these conditions will be lifted completely this year, something that's exciting the folks at both NBC and Comcast.

The news outlet notes that NBC executives didn't like it when Hulu decided to launch an ad-free version in late 2015. Comcast/NBC executives also didn't much like it when Hulu's other owners were considering a sale, fearing that an independent Hulu would be a greater threat to traditional cable. Reports indicate Comcast quietly worked to scuttle that sale, violating one major merger condition.

Comcast's repeated attempts to tap dance around conditions it itself proposed in 2011 is rumored to be one of the reasons regulators nixed Comcast's attempted buy of Time Warner last year.

But soon Comcast will be free of most of the conditions, something those hoping for a competitive streaming video market are keeping an eye on.

"The conditions have served as backstop against any concern about anti-competitive behavior that would have arisen," analyst Craig Moffett tells Bloomberg. "All those concerns will be front and center again if Comcast is completely unshackled from these rules."

Moffett believes that while free, Comcast won't rush to engage in any anti-competitive behavior. At least not at first.

"Comcast is quite careful about creating regulatory bad will because it has already come back to bite them multiple times," Moffett said. "It’s not going to be like flipping a light switch where they are suddenly unfettered to do all this crazy stuff so let’s go do it."

Of course the expiring conditions is just one of several consumer protections that will soon no longer be facing Comcast. Congress recently decided to kill privacy rules and there's looming plans to kill net neutrality and eliminate FCC oversight of the uncompetitive broadband industry. All told, Comcast executives are likely elated at being "unshackled" from all of the government attempts to prevent it from acting anti-competitively. To think they won't take full advantage, sooner or later, is likely wishful thinking.