The end of an era. The beginning of another megacorp. As early as this week, Comcast Cable is set to buy a controlling stake in NBC.
Eight decades after pioneering the concept of broadcasting, NBC is on the verge of a startling move that illustrates broadcast television's decline.
Cable TV operator Comcast Corp. is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as next week, bringing the network of Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Tom Brokaw under the corporate control of the company that owns the Golf Channel and E! Entertainment Television...
By owning more content, Comcast further hedges its bets as mainly a distributor of shows in case viewers ditch their cable TV subscriptions and migrate to the Internet, mobile devices or a platform that has yet to emerge. The company could charge for the shows or sell ads wherever the viewers are.
What happened to all of that talk about smaller companies? Was that only for banking and insurance companies? Oh yeah, it doesn't apply to them either.
Anyhoo, Comcast will now spread it's special brand of crappiness into broadcast TV as well. Notice the last quoted paragraph...that is really their game, to charge consumers for everything. TV slowly but surely will cease to be free. Pretty soon the only thing left on TV to watch without a subscription will be re-runs of the Mating Rituals of Fruit Flies on PBS.
Soon consumers will have no access to news or entertainment unless they pay one of the evil empires (Comcast or Verizon) for access to either their TV or high-speed internet networks. Staying informed and/or entertained will now become another necessary bill like electricity and gas.
