Comcast's Acquisition of Sky: A Comprehensive Business Analysis

This report provides a business analysis of Comcast's acquisition of Sky, examining the company's history, structure, business areas, and competitive landscape post-acquisition. It explores the acquisition rationale through the lens of media convergence, analyzing the impact of digital media spread, distribution windows, audience fragmentation, globalization, and conglomeration. The report further delves into the Net Neutrality controversy, presenting arguments for its return from the perspective of a media conglomerate, and concluding with a summary of the key findings and implications of the acquisition for the future of the media industry. The analysis covers the strategic implications of the merger and its impact on the competitive dynamics and market structure.

History of Media
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Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1
Part 1…..………………………………………………………………………………….2
Part 2……………………………………………………………………………………….3
Part 3………………………………………………………………………………………4
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………5

Introduction
Comcast Corporation is based in Philadelphia and is the largest cable company in the USA. The
company developed broadband in cable networks and it is involved in electronic retailing and
television programs. The report discusses the following parts;
Part 1
History & background of the company
The company was founded in 1963 by Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky in Tupelo
Mississippi. They were the entrepreneurs who transformed the company from a small scale
business to a large company that could employ more than 68,000 workers (Kumar, 2019). The
entrepreneurs involved in the mergers and acquisition process although this had a lot of risk to
the company. In 1994 Comcast acquired the Maclean Hunter's U.S thus adding 550,000
customers and becoming 3rd largest cable operator in the USA. Despite the risk of merging the
company has achieved a lot of success in the marketplace. The company beats the competition
by ensuring there is a production of excellent products and services to its customers. Comcast
has been in the frontline to offer latest cables which are related to modern technology and
complying to new options related to customers.
Structure of the company
Structure of the company before acquisition
The structure before acquisition in Comcast Company include;

The chairman, chief executive officer, senior chief executive officer, group chief executive,
executive vice president, the managing directors and executive vice president in regulatory and
state legislative affairs.
https://corporate.comcast.com/company/leadership
Structure after acquisition
The structure changed since it was to include the new management of Sky Company to the
existing structure of Comcast Company.
The structure includes;
The chairman, Sky management team, chief executive officer, President in Comcast cables,
senior chief executive officer, group chief executive, executive vice president, the managing
directors and executive vice president in regulatory and state legislative affairs.
Business areas & models
The company has two businesses that are the Comcast Cable and the NBC Universal. The
Comcast Cable business usually operates at the cable communication segment (Kumar, 2019).
On another hand, the NBC Universal business works in four businesses segments of the
company .The Cable Network Broadcast Television (NBT) has segments such as the Filmed
Entertainment and Theme Parks. The other business interests of the company consist the
Comcast Spectator which is believed to own the Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center
in Philadelphia. It also operates management related businesses of the company. In addition, the
Cable communications consist the Comcast Cable which is the provider of high internet cables
and voice services over the world.

Competition
The company now has lesser competition after acquiring SKY. Merging with SKY the Comcast
Cable was in the position to secure a large number of customers who were under the SKY
Company. This means that Comcast Company could now operate at a large number of
customers. The competition induced by the SKY Company before acquisition reduced and thus
helping the Comcast to incur huge profits (Bianconi & Tan,2019).
New opportunities from the acquisition
The combined Comcast and Sky will be a large private sector that will provide access to pay TV
services in the market. The company will enjoy a large number of customers of about 52 million
customers which is double the former number (Jiang, Liu, Fey & Jiang, 2018).This means that
Comcast will now enjoy huge profits and they anticipate the revenue to shift from $103 billion to
$134 billion in the next two years. This means that SKY is still adding TV subscribers to the
Comcast Company thus targeting a large number of the market.
Part 2
The spread of digital media
Comcast Company operates in Philadelphia. The area will make the company be the world's
largest pay-TV operator since there are more than 52million subscribers. This will increase the
future of the Comcast Company since there spread of digital media will be high. Brian Roberts
said that acquisition of the company will be a great day for Comcast in terms of media
transmission. Basically, Sky is a great platform with tremendous media brands and apt
management team. The acquisition, therefore, will allow the Comcast to quickly and efficiently

increase the customer base and also expand both internally and internationally through the sale of
digital media.
The importance of distribution windows
Distribution of widows is the keystone in digital media. Without the whole process of the widow
distribution, the company will collapse. This means that producers and studios are the key
sources of digital services. In the Comcast Company, the widow distribution will help in
producing effective series and movies which will attract customers thus enjoying huge profits
from the marketplace. The process will include movie production followed by distribution and
the exhibition process. The quality of the entire chain will determine the number of customers in
the company.
Audience fragmentation and segmentation
Audience fragmentation and segmentation will enable the Comcast Company to secure a position
in Europe. The Company will be leading directly to customer Media Company in Europe and
this will depend on how they will offer services to a particular segment in the market.
Segmentation forms the basis of what to offer to a certain group in the marketplace. The TV
services broadcasted by Sky will induce new methods which will help in segmenting the market
thus achieving huge profits and revenue. In addition, the audience fragmentation will help the
Company to offer digital services which will satisfy the customers in the marketplace.
Globalization
Basically, the increased spread of digital media in different countries will help the Comcast
acquire huge profits (Chalaby, 2018). Globalization involves operation of the business in foreign
countries. This is facilitated by a number of factors within the market. For example in Comcast

Company the addition of 23 million customers from Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Italy will
make the Comcast a powerful platform for digital services. This means the company will embark
in international businesses after the acquisition of Sky which enable the Comcast to access the
lucrative cash flow of the recurring revenue.
Conglomeration
Through conglomeration the Comcast will experience the following;
The conglomerate will create an internal capital market in the Comcast thus ensuring there is an
efficient allocation of capital.
Through conglomerate, the company will experience growth since the Sky's shares are more
discounted than those of Comcast.
There will be diversification results as the reduction of investment risk will be experienced in the
company. There will be a lot of opportunities to exploit including the shareholders' values of the
Comcast Company.
Part3
Analysis and an argument on the Net Neutrality controversy
Net neutrality was based on the fact that increased internet in the market will lead to competition
and this will affect the small companies who will be in the position to access adequate capital to
use appropriate internet for streaming its services (Musiani, Schafer & Le Crosnier, 2012). This
assumption tends to affect the Comcast Company which has merged with Sky to offer media
content. The net neutrality encourages for neutrality in the sense that all companies in the market

are supposed to use the same level of internet and this will affect the Comcast which has
embarked in media content streaming.
The position of "for" or "against" the return of the Net Neutrality Legislation from the point of
view of the media conglomerate
My point of view is that I am for the return of Net Neutrality. Generally, net neutrality shows
how the internet service provider has to allow access to sites and other application at the same
speed. This shows that whether consumers connect to different sites of the company or any other
sites, the internet service provider must treat all the action at same rate (Choi, Jeon & Kim,
2018). Therefore, without Net Neutrality then internet service provider will provide higher
connection speeds to unwanted sites. In Comcast, Net Neutrality is the reason why it cannot
block access to other competitors such as the CBS.
Conclusion
The report has clearly indicated the effects for acquisition to the Comcast Company and how the
net neutrality regulates the media content of the Company. It’s clear that merging of Comcast
with Sky will make the Comcast Company to be powerful media Company in Europe.

References
Bianconi, M., & Tan, C. M. (2019). Evaluating the instantaneous and medium-run impact of mergers
and acquisitions on firm values. International Review of Economics & Finance, 59, 71-87.
https://mbiancon.pages.tufts.edu/IREF_final_MB_CMT.pdf
Chalaby, J. K. (2018). Outsourcing in the UK television industry: A global value chain
analysis. Communication Theory.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
291384429_Television_and_Globalization_The_TV_Content_Global_Value_Chain
Choi, J. P., Jeon, D. S., & Kim, B. C. (2018). Net neutrality, network capacity, and innovation at the
edges. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 66(1), 172-204.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7a37/4bc8d1f38f21db9972b14b2863c6f3253ea0.pdf
Jiang, X., Liu, H., Fey, C., & Jiang, F. (2018). Entrepreneurial orientation, network resource acquisition,
and firm performance: A network approach. Journal of Business Research, 87, 46-57.
https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v87y2018icp46-57.html

Kumar, B. R. (2019). Comcast Acquisition of AT&T Broadband. In Wealth Creation in the World’s
Largest Mergers and Acquisitions (pp. 163-166). Springer, Cham.
https://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/att-broadband-to-merge-with-comcast-
corporation-in-72-billion-transaction
Musiani, F., Schafer, V., & Le Crosnier, H. (2012). Net neutrality as an Internet governance issue: the
globalization of an American-born debate. Revue francaise detudes americaines, (4), 47-63.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-etudes-americaines-2012-4-page-47.htm