Comcast and NBC-U Set Value for NBC Assets

Reports are that Comcast and NBC-U have agreedon a $30B valuation for the NBC assets to be contributed to prpposed new JV. Yet as the parties move forwad, Vivendi has yet to play its hand but is coming up on a short window when a decision needs to be made. And, public interest groups focuing on media ownership and consolidation are getying ready to voice dissent. While there will be signfificant givernmentla scrutiny of this deal, I think it will pass government muster--possibly with a few caveats on the broadcast-cable system side of the deal even though the Comcast systems are not presenty intended to be part of the new entity. But the combined cable network assets shouldn't raise the kind of concerns that the broadcast-cable system relationship raise. Even there, however, with the current view of competition in the distrbution marketplace and the 30% cap on system ownership not presently in place, there are no certainties.