While lobbying the FCC to approve its proposed merger with NBC Universal, Comcast was also trying to make nice with another skeptic.
In the weeks leading up to the government’s approval, Comcast was in talks with Allbritton Communications, a vehement opponent of the proposed merger.
Now it appears that Comcast was able to satisfy the concerns of Allbritton Communications by negotiating a new retrans deal with the broadcasting company, which owns several local stations including D.C. ABC-affiliate WJLA.
According to Adweek, Comcast and Allbritton quietly agreed to a new retrans deal in December for Allbritton’s TBD TV, an all-news cable channel serving the greater D.C. area. Adweek points out:
The agreement represented a rather dramatic shift in relations between the two companies. Allbritton … opposed the Comcast/NBCU transaction from the start, filing with the Federal Communications Commission and running an aggressive advertising campaign in the local print media.
On Thursday, Allbritton announced that it had completed a new retrans deal for its local stations, in addition to the TBD TV agreement that was struck weeks earlier.
The deals were signed the same day that the FCC approved the Comcast-NBCU merger.