Comcast/NBC merger: Trouble or trivia?

We can forgive Wired, in its breathlessness, for the infelicitous phrase “mammoth entertainment giant.” That one came directly from the Department of Redundancy Department.

Here’s one thing the merger means: Comcast just bought itself a lot of content and the talent that produces that content. I apologize for the long paragraph coming up, but this new company is going to own a startling number of media outlets and other businesses. Here goes.

The new company will own one the largest cable and broadband internet service providers in the U.S., 10 TV and movie production studios (including Universal Pictures), 20 cable channels, 11 regional broadcast TV stations, 15 Telemundo stations, 9 regional sports cable networks, one regional news cable station (New England Cable News), a whole bunch of websites, two pro sports teams in Philadelphia and two arenas, a food service vendor, a ticket agency, and four theme parks. And some other stuff.

(If you want to know which huge media companies own what, check out the Columbia Journalism Review’s “Who Owns What” webpage or the Free Press’s “Ownership Chart: The Big Six.”)

Is creating a super-mammoth entertainment mega-giant going to be a problem for consumers? Four of five Federal Communications Commission commissioners, including two Democratic commissioners appointed by President Barack Obama and two Republican commissioners, don’t think so. They approved the acquisition while placing a set of conditions on Comcast, including an agreement the company maintain net neutrality and creating an arbitration process for disputes between Comcast and other cable provides about carrying NBC Universal’s programming.

The fifth commissioner, Democrat Michael Copps, disagrees robustly. Check out these three paragraphs from his Dissenting Statement.

Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal is a transaction like no other that has come before this commission — ever. It reaches into virtually every corner of our media and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in the land. It is new media as well as old; it is news and information as well as sports and entertainment; it is distribution as well as content. And it confers too much power in one company’s hands.

The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.

As for the future of America’s news and journalism, I see nothing in this deal to address the fundamental damage that has been inflicted by years of outrageous consolidation and newsroom cuts. … Given that this merger will make the joint venture a steward of the public’s airwaves as a broadcast licensee, I asked for a major commitment of its resources to beef up the news operation at NBC. That request was not taken seriously. Increasing the quantity of news by adding hours of programming is no substitute for improving the quality of news by devoting the necessary resources.

Comcast is delighted. The company’s CEO gushingly thanked the FCC chairman and commissioners in a press release, invariably a worrisome corporate response to the announcement of federal regulations.

Bruce Gottlieb, former chief counsel at FCC, now general counsel at the National Journal and The Atlantic, posted an analysis after the decision was released yesterday. He sees the decision as encouraging competition.

Today, a computer company such as Apple, a Web company such as Google, a cable company such as Comcast, telephone/wireless companies such as Verizon and AT&T, and newcomers such as Netflix (which really doesn’t fit into any category) all want to become the same thing — the folks that you turn to when you want to watch something, any place, any time, on any screen.

And the FCC’s endorsement of the idea that the government has a role in encouraging this competition is probably the most important aspect of its decision today.

The Economist argues the FCC’s decision pushed us a step toward the beginning of the end of television.

If consumers decide to “cut the cord” and cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions in favor of internet-video services, money leaches away from television. It is still unclear whether this is happening, or will happen. The FCC has just made it a little more likely.

While oversize media corporations don’t thrill me, the FCC saw no sign the acquisition of NNC Universal by Comcast, as long as Comcast abides by a set of restrictions the agency imposed, would interfere with the functioning of an open marketplace. The merger is certainly not trivia, but it doesn’t look lime trouble, either. It’s just another day — a big day, for sure — in the continuing evolution of media.

Follow Mark Leccese on Twitter at @mleccese.