Legislative Affairs

The assigning and transferring of licenses made necessary to facilitate the purchase of NBC Universal by Comcast should be permitted to proceed without attaching any special policy conditions or policy requirements. The merger is a logical consequence of the convergence of the media and communications industries, and it should be permitted to succeed or fail based on the response of consumers in the marketplace. Because merger conditions can become precedent, policy should be made through a deliberative policy process involving all participants in the marketplace and not through the exceptional circumstances and vulnerability of a merger review process.