The Federal Communications Commission chairman signaled his tentative approval on Thursday to Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal, though with conditions.
In a crucial step, the agency chairman, Julius Genachowski, has concluded that the pending combination meets the so-called public interest standards that the F.C.C. is charged with upholding, as long as conditions are imposed, agency officials said.
Among the conditions: that Comcast not withhold NBC programming from its competitors in the online video market. Other conditions involve access to NBC programming by other TV distributors; access onto Comcast’s systems by other programmers, including independent ones; protections for over-the-air television; and assurances about programming diversity and localism.
Details about the proposed conditions started to trickle out when F.C.C. started to internally share its order for the Comcast-NBC deal. Essentially, it is a rough draft of the rules that Comcast and NBC will have to operate under — and for now, it is unpublished.
In a statement, Comcast said it was “gratified” that Mr. Genachowski’s office had taken the step forward. “Starting on the day of the deal’s announcement, we have emphasized that this transaction is pro-competitive, pro-consumer, and will deliver real public interest benefits,” the company said.
Citing normal procedure, the agency did not release the order or characterize it in detail. Senior officials at the F.C.C. held a conference call to discuss the order but did so only on condition of anonymity. They emphasized that the proposed conditions would alleviate harm to consumers. They did not say how long the conditions would be in effect for.
Mr. Genachowski and the four other F.C.C. commissioners will vote on the deal at some point, most likely in early January.
There are indications that the other government agency reviewing the deal, the Justice Department, is also preparing to approve it. A person with knowledge of the Justice Department’s approach said that talks continued with Comcast about a consent decree, which is commonly issued when companies merge. The department declined to comment.
In reviewing the Comcast-NBC Universal deal, the Justice Department has primarily assessed whether the acquisition will be anticompetitive, and the F.C.C. has assessed whether it is in the public interest. The two agencies have worked closely on the review, even holding a joint meeting with Comcast representatives earlier in the month.
The deal is being closely watched because of its sheer size — it would bring together the NBC network and cable channels like Bravo and MSNBC with Comcast’s giant cable and Internet systems — and its possible effects on online video. Regulators have worried that Comcast and NBC together could harm the developing market for video viewed on the Internet, in part because NBC owns a stake in Hulu.
On Wednesday, the companies said they expected regulatory approval to come sometime in January. The announcement was a setback for Comcast, which has said all year that it expected the deal to be approved by the end of 2010.
