Brussels, 14/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 13 July, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of US company NBC Universal by Comcast Corporation, also of the US. The Commission concluded that the transaction, of which it was notified on 11 July, would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Comcast is active in cable networks in the United States, and in the production and licensing of TV content and channels. While Comcast owns no cable assets in the EEA, it has a stake in the US film and entertainment company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (“MGM”). NBC Universal is an American global media and entertainment conglomerate, formed from the merger of the activities of Vivendi Universal Entertainment and US company NBC.
The Commission says that the operation will lead to horizontal overlaps between the activities of Comcast, MGM and NBC Universal in various markets for the licensing of TV programmes to pay-TV and free TV operators, the sale of online advertising space, the production of motion pictures for theatrical distribution and the sale of home entertainment content. However, the parties' combined market shares will remain very limited in all the EEA countries where they are both active and the transaction will not lead to any vertical relationship between Comcast's cable distribution platform and NBC Universal's
programming assets. (F.G./transl.rt)