NetCoalition says it is against Comcast-NBC Universal deal, but that doesn’t mean Google is too
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Google coming out against the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is a sexy story. It’s just not true.
NetCoalition, a Washington-based public interest group, was getting headlines Monday for its announcement that it is joining the Coalition for Competition in Media in opposing Comcast Corp.’s deal to take a controlling stake in General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.
‘We are concerned this merger will create a vertically and horizontally integrated media behemoth that will smother competition, diminish choice and reduce broadband network investment, all while raising prices for consumers,’ said Markham Erickson, executive director and general counsel of NetCoalition.
That yet another organization has come out against the merger of the nation’s largest cable and broadband provider with a programming giant is hardly big news. But in its release, NetCoalition notes that it serves as the ‘public policy voice for the nation’s leading Internet companies,’ including Amazon.com, Bloomberg LP, EBay, Google, Wikipedia and Yahoo!.
The implication from that sentence is clear. Google, the giant of the Internet, is against the deal. Indeed, the stories on the NetCoalition announcement from The Hill, an influential Washington news source, and AdWeek both play up Google’s involvement in the coalition.
The only problem is Google has not come out against the deal. A spokeswoman for the search giant and YouTube parent said it does not have a position on the merger. Google has not filed comments with the FCC either in support or in opposition to the deal. Yahoo has also not officially weighed in at the FCC, and a person familiar with the situation said the company was surprised to find itself mentioned in the NetCoalition release. A Yahoo spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Amazon and EBay have also steered clear of the regulatory fight over the merger. However, Bloomberg, the business-media giant, does have issues, as it fears NBC’s business channel, CNBC, will have an unfair advantage once it is owned by Comcast.
Google may in fact have issues with the deal, but if it does, it is dealing with them privately, as is Yahoo. A spokeswoman for NetCoalition referred inquiries about the release to Erickson, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Comcast dismissed the release saying, ‘It’s been almost a full year since the transaction was announced, and today one coalition funded by a small set of merger opponents is joining another lobbying coalition funded and run by those same merger opponents.’
-- Joe Flint
