Yesterday, the FCC approved Comcast‘s proposed purchase of the controlling stake in NBC Universal, but with some conditions – such as giving up the Board position (and control) in online video service Hulu, despite still owning a good share of it, along with other regulatory controls – limits on exclusivity of NBCU produced content and how it should operate according to the FCC’s Open Internet Principles – to try and keep a rein on what the merged entity can and cannot do, to try and retain a reasonably level playing field in the market (to the relief of other cable operators, online video distributors).
It looks like quite the regulatory straitjacket, which has no doubt also cost public money to develop, and will cost more to enforce.
Despite this, all I can hear in the back of my mind is the “thud, thud, thud” of the Stay Puft Marshmallow man‘s footsteps, coming to crush anything in it’s way under it’s squishy feet.
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