Roberts Selling Comcast-NBC Merger to Washington Press Corp

Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts is in Washington (DC), scheduled to speak at the State of the Net conference and pitch, of course, the proposed takeover of NBC. In an Q&A attended, apparently, by every media outlet, Roberts touched on the pending merger, the Leno-O'Brien late night dust-up, and Network Neutrality.

He says any thought of migrating the NBC network to cable is "right off the table." Comcast is committed to a free, over-the-air NBC with local station affiliates. Comcast is at heart a "local company." Roberts noted that existing law would prevent the cable TV operator from denying satellite TV companies and other rivals access to NBC Universal programming on reasonable terms. Roberts expressed frustration at watching the turmoil over late-night programming at NBC as he awaits regulatory approval to take over the network. Roberts said he wanted an expeditious review by regulators of the cable company's deal for General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal unit, proposed last month. "It's a frustrating period of time because we are unable, legally, to be involved," Roberts said when asked about the situation surrounding television hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. "We can't talk about it. We can't really have any discussions about. And so we, like you, read about it."

On Network Neutrality, Roberts it was a mistake" to slow down Internet traffic to file-sharing site BitTorrent, an event that helped escalate consumer advocates' argument that the government needs to enact rules to prohibit such action. "We changed it," Roberts said. "We realized it was not the right solution." Comcast's temporary traffic throttling was one of only two instances that interrupted access to content or Web sites, Roberts said, and the company changed its practice without needing government intervention. "We don't block websites and we don't do anything to not have an open and free Internet," Roberts said, adding that broadband service is the fastest growing area of the company's business. "In this space, there's nothing prohibiting Apple or Google from doing whatever they want," he said. "The Internet is still growing at 50 to 60 percent a year. It's an explosion and none of us want to get in the way of that innovation." The net neutrality regulations now under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission, and favored by Democrats in Congress, will create a "bad cloud," Roberts said. "Wall Street will pull capital spending" for Comcast, he said, echoing Republicans' fears that FCC intervention will get in the way of investments for bigger, faster broadband networks. "You're regulated before you've even invented."