“The proposed US$30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal deal has entered the labyrinthine process of winning Congressional approval from the antitrust gurus and the Federal Communications Commission. Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the sprawling new company that would combine NBC’s programming with Comcast’s vast network of 24 million subscribers,” Andrea Belz writes for E-Commerce Times. “Those of us who remember the Frankenstein that was AOL Time Warner may shudder as we hear these words again: ‘It’s great to own content and distribution!’”
Belz writes, “Meanwhile, cable operators should be more concerned about recent rumors that Apple is seeking to distribute television content via subscriptions to its hyper-successful iTunes Store.”
“Suddenly, it seems that Apple would make a formidable de facto cable television network. The company is poised to unleash the same business model earthquake in television that it did in music,” Belz writes. “After all, Apple transformed the music industry by providing only distribution, not content, eliminating the record labels’ traditional role as publishers. Will Apple reinvent the role of television studios as well? What does this mean for the Comcast-NBC deal?”
Belz writes, “The Comcast-NBC deal is a vestige of the past. Look for the Apple iTunes Store to chew through every industry providing content of any kind.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]
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