Comcast and NBCU executives say they are not opposed to reporting back to the government quarterly on the host of public interest commitments they have made to help secure government approval of their proposed joint venture, according to an ex parte filing for a meeting between executives from both companies and the FCC.
The filing comes from a Dec. 2 meeting between NBCU Executive VP/General Counsel Rick Cotton and Comcast VP of Regulatory and State Legislative Affairs Kathy Zachem with top FCC staffers.
Anticipating that the FCC will make those voluntary deals binding conditions of the deal, the pair went into greater detail on those commitments, including that it would be "generally not opposed" to quarterly reporting requirements.
Conditioned mergers often include reporting benchmarks so the government can get regular updates on the progress of those commitments, many of which can range several years into the future.
For example, Comcast has committed to launching 10 new independent cable channels, but says it will take about nine-and-a half years to do so, citing time for development, negotiating a deal and finding bandwidth.
