GE in talks to sell NBC to Comcast

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Steve Chiotakis: NBC was one of the founding fathers of television. Now there are reports that the GE — owner of the 83-year-old peacock — is negotiations to sell part of the network to cable giant Comcast. From New York, Marketplace’s Alisa Roth reports.

Alisa Roth: It sounds like Comcast would buy just over half of NBC, while GE would get to keep a minority stake.

Comcast is already the biggest cable operator in the country: if this deal goes through, it would own NBC, Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC, and other channels. Comcast would also get an easy way into digital media.

It’s still not at all clear that the deal can go through: for starters nobody knows if Vivendi, which owns 20 percent of NBC, is ready to sell. There could be anti-trust questions because Comcast already operates in so many places. And if NBC is really up for grabs, other companies might try to fight Comcast for it.

In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.