FCC Extends Comcast/NBCU Comment Period

The FCC has granted the request of the American Cable Association
and others that it extend the comment deadline on the Comcast/NBCU merger by
two weeks until Aug. 19.

That came soon after both Comcast and NBCU said theysupported the request to move the deadline date from Aug. 5.

ACA and others argued that they needed the time to fully vet
Comcast/NBCU's 599-page defense of the deal, which was filed July 21 but
which ACA said it could not access until after that.

That will give ACA and others about the same amount of time
to respond as Comcast/NBCU had to reply to the petitions to deny the merger
that were filed June 21.

The FCC has not stopped its 180-day informal shot clock on the
merger, according to a spokesperson.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.