Critics Tell FCC To Watch New Comcast-Controlled NBCU

Filed letter Saturday promising to keep close eye on new company

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2011 12:48:45 PM

The ink was hardly dry on the Comcast/NBCU deal Saturday when critics filed a letter with the FCC promising to keep a close eye on the new company and asking FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to do the same.

They echoed the same concerns they expressed in numerous filings over the course of the past year.

"The Comcast-NBC merger is the new face of media consolidation," they wrote. "As organizations representing hundreds of thousands of diverse, local citizens around the country, we are pledging today to be vigorous watchdogs, monitoring this newly merged media giant, and consistent advocates for the public interest. We ask you to make the same pledge."

Groups signing on to the letter included Free Press. Media Access Project, Common Cause and the Writers Guild of American East.

Comcast has made its own pledge to keep an eye on the new company, volunteering to name an ombudsman to oversee compliance with FCC conditions and its own pledges and side deals with independent producers and minority groups.