Dish Network was doing some last minute lobbying at the FCC for
open-ended conditions on the Comcast/NBCU deal.
The FCC plans to impose more than a dozen conditions on the deal,
according to sources, with most lasting seven years.
But according to an ex parte filing at the FCC, Jeff Blum, Dish
SVP general counsel and senior VP, argued that the conditions should remain in
force "until Comcast-NBCU can demonstrate that the public interest is no
longer served by such conditions."
That came in a phone call Tuesday to Josh Gottheimer, senior counselor
to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Blum also put in a pitch for wholesaling
broadband, standstill and arbitration conditions for online content access, and
"strong" broadband conditions.
The FCC's transition team has drafted an order approving the joint
venture with numerous conditions, including on network neutrality, program
access, online access and broadband deployment.
The commissioners are expected to vote to approve the deal
sometime in January.
