Here Comes Comcast - Chomsky and Herman

For one reason or another, I have always found interest in media conglomerates and their ability to absorb smaller companies. I found the subject as a whole very compelling, but more or less focus my attention on the Walt Disney Company. From Pixar to ESPN and Marvel through ABC, Disney continues to grow in power. However, when I was in middle school I remember reading about a threat for the Walt Disney Company, the threat of Comcast. Just as large conglomerates go after the smaller media branches, these big companies appear to fight themselves. Comcast’s attempt at a takeover for Disney eventually failed as a whole, however the company did buy out areas of MGM as well as regional cable channels and sports channels in pursuit of adding some competition. Nevertheless, Comcast in pursuit of a $30 billion dollar company, NBC Universal.

Announced just last year, Comcast which is now the “nation’s largest cable operator,” will take over 51% or the major of the company within the next 18 months (story reported in December of 2010). Not only will this include NBC, which once the takeover goes into effect can essentially change in name, but will include networks such as the Golf Channel, E!, USA, CNBC, MSNBC and many more. The chief exectutive of Comcast claims that this acquisition will be “a perfect fit for Comcast and will allow us to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform ‘anytime, anywhere’ media that American consumers are demanding.” Now, normally I would stand back and say, “its just business.” Yet, according to Chomsky and Herman, we live “in a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest” especially in the terms of “systematic propaganda.” Comcast is on a power hunt and as we sit back and watch them acquire NBC and all that comes with it, what effects can this have on our future media sources? It may appear as if we have hundreds of options, but at the end of the day the same few companies own them all.

New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/business/media/04nbc.html