Comcast Outlines Program Access Philosophy To Regulators

Comcast programming executives met with representatives of the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department in Washington to talk about how Comcast makes its programming available on the air and online, including assuring regulators that it does not require carriage of any of its owned networks as a condition of access to any other.

The company reiterated that it has no plans to migrate online delivery of NBC programming to the TV Everywhere subscription model. Jeff Shell, president of the Comcast Programming Group, told the staffers, in answer to a question, that Comcast may discount the price of one network to expand distribution of another, but it does not condition carriage of one channel on carriage of another, saying that the cost-benefit analysis of that strategy does not add up. On the issue of access to online programming, which FCC and Justice both appear to be interested in, Shell said Comcast "envisioned" making online video available to competing cable, satellite and telco distributors.