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United States and States of California, Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Washington v. Comcast Corp., General Electric Co., and NBC Universal Inc.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Competitive-Impact Statement filed January 18, 2011, in Civil Action No. 1:11-CV-00196 (2011)

Facts

In 2009 Comcast Corporation, General Electric Company, NBC Universal, Inc. (NBCU) (defendants), and Navy, LLC announced plans to form a joint venture that would combine Comcast and General Electric’s broadcast and cable networks. General Electric owned NBCU, which in turn owned NBC networks, television stations, cable-programming networks, and content-production studios. NBCU also owned a third of Hulu, LLC, one of the most successful emerging online video distributors (OVDs). The joint venture would give Comcast majority control over highly valuable NBCU programming that competitors need to effectively compete with Comcast. The United States and five states (plaintiffs) brought a civil antitrust suit arguing the transaction would substantially lessen competition in the video-programming distribution market across most of the country. Specifically, the transaction would allow Comcast to disadvantage both traditional competitors and emerging OVDs by withholding essential popular content or increasing the fees charged for it. In addition, the government filed a competitive-impact statement describing the transaction’s anticipated effects and a proposed judgment to settle the case.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning

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