Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen has told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that content the company would get from Comcast's merger with NBC Universal is the big element that will help keep consumer prices down.
"(T)he major cost we have as a company is the cost of programming. The programming market is not competitive. Everyone has their own content and their own content by definition they have a monopoly in," Cohen said in the newspaper interview. "The inadvertent result of public policy... has essentially created too much power at the content level, which is clearly impacting pricing overall."
Concurrently, Comcast is pushing hard to add more content to its stable. CEO Brian Roberts has become a frequent visitor to Washington, D.C. telling regulators and elected officials why Comcast should be allow to own a broadcast network. Ironically, this laser focus on attaining more content--and if you follow Cohen's logic: reducing prices--is also causing Comcast's stock to underperform because analysts fear the company is ignoring other issues.
Comcast's performance will be addressed Wednesday when the MSO hosts its first quarter earnings call.
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