During discussion this past Tuesday in Kathy Gill’s Net Economics class at the UW MCDM, my breakout group went over the subject of Comcast’s bid for NBC Universal. Now, when I first heard about the news a few months back, my mind went straight like a bullet to the word “anti-trust”, like so many other people apparently did. The implications alone for net neutrality didn’t even have to trigger such larger concerns for me – because the idea of the biggest cable provider in the US owning one of the biggest media content producer/distributors in the world just stank to high heaven on its own. Granted, Time Warner is number two in the cable game across the country and has a massive cadre of cable nets itself, but a juggernaut in the form of Comcast NBC Universal was a daunting concept regardless. Of course, in adding net neutrality to the discussion, knowing that if the Right gets its way and the Internet becomes a deregulation playground, the thought of a top-to-bottom Comcast MSO* experience, from the consumer’s vantage point, one which throttles its competitors’ content and makes it impossible to get away from 30 Rock and Jim Carrey, well, that becomes a frightening thought indeed.
Then it hit me… or the gist of it hit me and I have finally formulated it all (and I have my discussion mates and Kathy to thank for spurring this on, of course)… if you want to save the Internets and preserve network neutrality, let Comcast buy NBC Universal. Heck, let MSO’s buy whoever and whatever they want. It’s time for daddy to give the big content producers away and let them get married to all those big infrastructure providers who have come-a courtin’. But, before you scoff at this, allow me to explain. (more…)
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