nbc

Updated 5:10 p.m. PDT with information about the financial details of the deal.

Comcast is very close to sealing the deal to acquire NBC Universal, CNBC anchor and reporter David Faber reported Tuesday. The only thing left to do is sign the papers.

Faber said in a story posted on the CNBC Web site that the deal is expected to be formally announced on Thursday. But CNET sources close to the deal say the final details could take longer to tie up, and the final announcement could be pushed back until early next week.

Earlier Tuesday, The New … Read more

Comcast is on a roll this week. On Tuesday it began its public pilot of a bandwidth monitoring system for its customers to figure out exactly how much they're downloading each month. This comes a little more than a year after the company announced it would be capping users at 250GB per month.

More importantly, reports say that General Electric and Vivendi have reached a tentative agreement that helps pave the way for Comcast to buy NBC Universal. If, or rather when, that deal is sealed, Comcast would expand its media reach outside of its service roots into being … Read more

General Electric and French media company Vivendi have reached a tentative agreement, which will clear the path for cable giant Comcast to buy NBC Universal, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

The stories cite unnamed sources who say under the terms of the deal GE will buy Vivendi's 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for roughly $5.8 billion. Vivendi's ownership of NBC is one of the hurdles that stood in the way of GE selling the TV and movie company to Comcast in a deal worth about $30 billion.

The … Read more

No, no, fellow residents of southern Illinois, not tractor pulling--tracker pulling! The Pirate Bay has pulled out the trackers, but that doesn't mean you can't download anything. The site's still up for now using a different technology. Also, Google's book deal seems to have been changed, but not enough to satisfy its opponents. And Natali and I get into a philosophical argument.

Google book settlement revised, criticized http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/11/google-offers-revised-book-settlement-but-critics-unappeased.ars http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10398995-93.html… Read more

Woo wee, did Hulu's fortunes flip-flop fast.

The Web's deepest stockpile of full-length TV shows and feature films is seeing some very public infighting over its future. The disagreements are over how Hulu should generate revenue and even how to sell ads, according to a report in Mediaweek.

Things were going so well. Since Hulu's October 2007 launch, the Web video site founded by NBC Universal and News Corp., has grown its audience, generated big ad revenue, and been bathed in positive press.

Hulu has mounted the only serious challenge to YouTube. The site also enables its … Read more

Verizon Communications has agreed to forward copyright violation notices on behalf of Hollywood studios, including NBC Universal, multiple sources tell CNET.

The news comes after Verizon began issuing the same type of copyright letters on Thursday--as part of a test--on behalf of the music industry.

In addition to its deals with the Recording Industry Association of America and NBC Universal, Verizon has similar partnerships with an undisclosed number of other film studios and copyright owners, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. It is unclear when Verizon began issuing the letters for NBC Universal.

A Verizon spokesman declined to … Read more

One major obstacle seems to have been settled in Comcast's quest to buy NBC Universal from General Electric--how much to pay for it.

Both companies have reportedly agreed on a price of $30 billion for GE's movie and TV unit, according to sources cited Monday by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal (subscription required for full story).

The agreement on the worth of NBC Universal (NBCU) is a major step toward paving the way to create a new, privately held company that would combine NBC's TV stations and Universal Studios with Comcast's TV and cable stations. … Read more

Cable giant Comcast is reportedly in talks to gain a controlling stake in General Electric's NBC Universal, in a deal that would help shape Comcast's online-content strategy and help NBC Universal keep pace amid the shifting market.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Comcast is hoping to form a privately held joint venture that would include NBC's media content. Comcast would control the venture with a 51 percent stake, and GE would own 49 percent of the new company.

Combined, the new jointly owned media company would own more than two dozen TV networks, including NBC, … Read more

In the U.K., you don't have to be in the presence of someone to serve them with legal papers. So now Twitter has become a way to get served. We also are happy that the U.S. government is taking cybersecurity seriously, but maybe they could lay off with the cyber prefix a little. And we try to care more about the Palm Pixi. We really do.

Vista/IE market share slide, Win 7/Firefox/Chrome surge http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=5700… Read more