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Re: What? Viacom was formed when CBS was required to divest it's content production and syndication arm. You got that backwards.
When the FCC prohibition on networks owning the programs they broadcast was removed, Viacom essentially bought it's parent, CBS.
Of course, Redstone's National Amusements controlled both so it was all just a paper shuffle anyway.
This Comcast-NBCU deal is not the same thing. In 1970, CBS controlled it's TV network and single TV stations in seven markets. Comcast controls the biggest slice of a cable market which provides transport to over 80% of all channels watched. Comcast could easily start hacking away at competitors by denying carriage, which, while technically illegal, could also easily put them out of business while the lawsuits wanders through the legal system.
This is precisely the kind of media consolidation we should be avoiding. But you'll never get the pro-business-at-all-costs cable fanbase here to admit it. Maybe once the damage is done a movement toward separating the content from the delivery will restart, much for the same reasons Viacom was separated from CBS in 1971. | |
| Ok forget Viacom. How about the fact that Comcast already owns E!, G4, Versus, Golf Channel, Style Network, Comcast Sportsnet, Sprout and a few others. Owning content is nothing new and other carriers haven't been blocked from those assets. Comcast doesn't provide service every where and isn't going to lose out on the revenue from their competitors just to block out those networks. | |
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