DirecTV doesn't like Comcast-NBCU deal; Cuban does

It's not surprising that DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) has officially opposed the Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA)-NBC Universal merger/acquisition/takeover because it views Comcast as a bad player that has withheld regional sports programming in its Philadelphia region for "over a decade." In comments filed with the FCC, DirecTV sad the merger would "permit Comcast to raise prices for NBC programming" sold to its rivals and "make online NBCU content available to its own systems in an earlier window."

Comcast and DirecTV have become the "Bickersons" over sports programming, where Comcast shuts out DirecTV in the Philadelphia market because, it says, DirecTV refuses to let loose of its NFL exclusivity package.

Mark Cuban, a sports figure as owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is being a good sport about the merger. As owner and self-admitted meddler in the HDNet programming lineup, Cuban had nothing but praise for Comcast as "much more supportive of HDNet as an independent programmer than most of the other large, long-established" entertainment service providers, Cuban said in his FCC filing. "It would be disappointing if independent programmers were imposed only against Comcast."

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