NBCU will have to relinquish its “management rights” at Hulu under the newly-approved joint venture announced by the FCC and the Department of Justice. The agreement took more than a year to reach.
One of the issues to those who were concerned about the deal was that Comcast would have too much control over both the production and the means of delivery of content. While Comcast will still have plenty of its own cable content under its control, the DOJ decided that NBC should no longer have say over what goes onto Hulu. This, in effect, makes NBC – a joint founder of Hulu along with FOX – just another contributor to Hulu. There’s one exception – NBC and Comcast can still keep their share in Hulu. But the lack of say over management matters is an interesting wrinkle in the deal. What’s the government’s logic?
Without such a remedy, Comcast could, through its seats on Hulu’s board of directors, interfere with the management of Hulu, and, in particular, the development of products that compete with Comcast’s video service.
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It’s very interesting just how much this stands out in the deal. Comcast’s cable content far outmatches that of Hulu. It’s a forward-looking measure from the FCC, which has been criticized for being behind the times.