On the same day that Comcast announced it was ramping up
local news channels as part of its FCC commitments in the NBCU merger,
Free Press released a report saying the company has to do a better job in local
news to meet its merger obligations.
"No News Is Bad News: An Analysis of Comcast-NBC Universal
Compliance with FCC Localism Conditions" focuses on Telemundo and
says that Comcast did not properly report its programming to the FCC
"obscuring the true nature and amount of programming being claimed as local
news," in part by not describing in its filing any of the programs
listed.
Free Press acknowledged that Comcast had announced plans
to increase local programming (it did not say "news
programming") in Dallas, Miami
and California. But it pointed to
the fact that no programming increases had been announced (REFER OUR STORY OF
LAST NIGHT) on its Telemundo station, calling on Comcast to "commit
to significantly improving local news production and distribution across
all Telemundo stations."
"The companies are committed to having
the Telemundo O&Os produce an additional 1,000 hours of news and
information programming each year," NBC Local Media said Monday in
announcing the news ramp-up in Dallas,
Miami and California.
It said details would be outlined this summer.
