The FCC has again halted its transaction review clock on the proposed acquisition of a majority of NBC Universal by Comcast. The Commission wasn’t satisfied with material they submitted earlier this month in response to an information request issued last month.
The Media Bureau’s dissatisfaction focuses on requests that each company provide a complete list of every video venture in which they have a financial interest and provide a detailed description of each and every one. The parties also apparently overlooked or ignored a requirement that they submit a specific certification that the information was complete and accurate.
The 180-day transaction clock is now stopped until the new responses are received and are found satisfactory. In fact, the clock on the FCC’s website will have to be rolled back to June 11th, when the responses had been due. By our calculation the clock will be stuck on Day 37 for a while.