THE END FOR GE AND NBC? - AT 9:46 P.M. ET:  According to The New York Times, the way has probably been cleared for the sale of NBC Universal to Comcast:

General Electric has reached a tentative agreement to buy Vivendi’s 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for about $5.8 billion, helping clear the path to a sale of the television and movie company to Comcast, people briefed on the matter told DealBook.

But much remains to be negotiated, these people warned. The Vivendi agreement values NBC Universal at $29 billion, less than the $30 billion or so that G.E. and Comcast had agreed to last month.

Harmonizing the two values, as in so much of the talks over NBC Universal, may take days to do. But people briefed on the matter said the companies are aiming to announce a completed deal by Thursday.

COMMENT:  It is virtually impossible to predict the impact of this on the entertainment industry or the general public.  Broadcasters and movie studios are delicate mechanisms, where talent, flair, hype and business sense combine to produce either flops, hits, or, usually, something in between. 

GE should never have owned NBC.  Its management of NBC has often been uninspired, and GE is a major defense contractor owning an equally major news operation, which is an inherent conflict of interest.   That news operation, NBC News, has lost a great deal of its luster over the years.  One mission of Comcast must be to restore its status, or sell it to someone else, which I think is quite possible.

Comcast is currently a transmitter, not, to use the awful and trendy term, a "content provider."  It knows nothing of providing content (which we used to call drama, comedy and news).  So don't be shocked if, after the highly publicized acquisition, we see the same old Hollywood faces back in action.  Hollywood is a place where people fail upward, getting better jobs no matter how poorly they've done in the previous ones.  Some Hollywood types justify this by claiming that failure gives one "experience."  Under that logic, Hollywood is the most experienced place in the world.

Hollywood also has a powerful establishment, made up of a continuing group of agents, lawyers, financiers, and executives who will try to capture Comcast as quickly as possible.  They may succeed.

I hope Comcast knows what it's getting into.  To call someone a shark in Hollywood is a compliment.  We wish Comcast well, if its deal goes through.  We hope it improves both NBC and Universal, and that its ulcers are below the average number.

November 30, 2009