merged company would have the ability and incentive to discriminate in favor of comcast time warner content, including nbc content. it would have almost 30 million subscribers being unable to distribute on the video distribution network. it could potentially be fatal to non-comcast affiliated programmers. ultimately, this could give enormous sway over the kind of content that is available to the public. the witnesses should also address whether the combined comcast time warner cable could emerge as a gatekeeper of the internet and might be able to stifle as some have already alleged. recently netflix signed an agreement with comcast that would allow netflix to directly access comcast customers rather than paying companies to carry traffic between its servers and comcast customers. on the one hand this could be seen as a simple, straightforward reddish transaction. paying comcast to connect directly instead of sending traffic to other companies may simply have been categorized as a smart business decision, but netflix raises its concern, asserting it was forced to pay comcast for reliable delivery to comca

as you know in january of 2011 the comcast nbc universal merger was approved. comcast has not launched rftv in a single new major market and declined to carry our ph.d. in any markets despite the provisions added to the merger designed to protect them. on august 13th of this year, low costs and over the vehement objections from thousands of comcast customers, they were given only a 30 day notice. comcast dropped rftv on all its cable systems in colorado and new mexico and one day rftv lost 470,000 homes. 43% of its very limited comcast distribution. today rftv has worked diligently to understand the decision and find a solution. the city of pueblo, the state of colorado and even the colorado governor's office mobilized significant efforts to get comcast to reverse its decision and return rfd-tv calfs whirl and western themes programming to the states with strong ties to the western lifestyle. meetings have also been held with the regional denver office -- why was it dropped the queue that is the question everybody has but it seems to be simple. we are not truly

in january of 2011, the comcast-nbc u merger was approved. on august 13 of this past year, despite strong ratings, low comcast dropped us on all its cable systems in colorado and new mexico. lost 470,000e homes. today, we have worked diligently to understand comcast's decision and to find a solution. the city of pueblo, colorado, and the colorado governor's , localize significant efforts for comcast to reverse its decision and return the popular programming to these two states with such strong ties to the western lifestyle. meetings have been held with the regional denver office and with comcast for a birmingham executives in philadelphia to no avail. why were we dropped? it is the question that everybody has. it seems to be simple. we are just a true independent. we enjoy excellent relations with all the other cable operators. this past year, charter launched us on their ft. worth system and in october, time warner added us to franchises in the state of kentucky. our concerns with comcast taking over this major western city should be obvious.

it is something i warned about in 2010 when we had the comcast nbc universal deal before us. i opposed that as well. and i said, this is what is going to happen. this is all unfolding in a very disturbing way. >> do you think your colleagues in the senate are afraid to take these mergers on? these are the media entities that cover them. consumer,t affect the if at&t mergers with directv, time warner merges with comcast? >> it has a bad effect on consumers. consumers, as we have seen this concentration in media, have a portrait. this past year, the cost to consumers has tripled, the rate of inflation more than double -- at the rate of inflation. investors thats they will leverage their position to make more money and they have not said that this will increase the rate that consumers are paying for their services. so this is not good for consumers. , i think colleagues there is a lot of skepticism about both of these deals. we know more about exactly what comcast, time warner is, we had a hearing, we heard a lot of skepticism. i am the only one that has come the comcast time wa

in january of 2011, the comcast-nbc u merger was approved. on august 13 of this past year, despite strong ratings, low costs, comcast dropped us on all its cable systems in colorado and new mexico. in one day, we lost 470,000 homes. today, we have worked diligently to understand comcast's decision and to find a solution. the city of pueblo, colorado, and the colorado governor's office, localize significant efforts for comcast to reverse its decision and return the popular programming to these two states with such strong ties to the western lifestyle. meetings have been held with the regional denver office and with comcast for birmingham executives in philadelphia to no avail. why were we dropped? it is the question that everybody has. it is the question that everybody has. it seems to be simple. we are just a true independent. we enjoy excellent relations with all the other cable operators. this past year, charter launched us on their ft. worth system and in october, time warner added us to franchises in the state of kentucky. our concerns wit

nevertheless they are concerned that the behavioral remedies imposed in the comcast nbc-u transactionsmcast didn't abide by and accordingly, we should consider whether such tm commitments should be strengthened and made enforceable to protect the public interest with respect to comcast proposed acquisition of time warner cable. i look forward to your testimony. thank you, chairman. >> thank you mr. conyers. i recognize the vice chairman of the subcommittee for his opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman. as a free-market conservative, i am on the record stating that i do not think government should interfere in business mergers if they do not violate antitrust law. and i generally support this merger and i don't think it is to be destroyed by excessive government intervention. however, there are some concerns that i am hoping will get cleared up during this hearing. the primary one being the impact that this merger would have how the programmers particularly independent and small programmers are able to compete in the marketplace and gain access about gaining new ways to distribut

, the merged company would have the ability and incentive to discriminate in favor of comcast , including content nbc content. it would have only almost 30 mn subscribers being unable to distribute on the video distribution network. it could potentially be fatal to non-comcast affiliated programmers. ultimately, this could give enormous sway over the kind of available to the public. the witnesses should also address whether the combined comcast time warner cable could emerge as a gatekeeper of the internet and might be able to as some have already alleged. recently netflix signed an thatment with comcast would allow netflix to directly access comcast customers rather companies to carry traffic between its servers and comcast customers. on the one hand this could be seen as a simple, straightforward reddish transaction. paying comcast to connect directly instead of sending mayfic to other companies simply have been categorized as a smart business decision, but its concern,s asserting it was forced to pay comcast for reliable delivery to comcast customers. the netflix ceo reed hastings thatavid wells e

wwe getting pinned on concerns about its new tv deal with comcast/nbc universal which is the parent company. grasso, you saw premarket, you decided to jump in. >> for us we're traders. so i saw a stock that was down 48% premarket. for me that's an opportunity. now, obviously i had to read about what the fundamentals were and i had to know what the fundamentals were, but it was never going to be a long-term trade for me. so i bought it premarket. i sold it a couple hours later. there's the graphics of me and dan. sold it a couple hours later, but this is a fireman trade because everyone is running out, you're running in. you have to be very careful with this. keep your risk tolerance real tight on a trade like this and not a lot of people can do this. you have to be a professional trader. >> so how tight would that be on a name -- you bought -- >> percentage basis? >> i'd be willing to lose 2%. >> 2%. >> that's pretty tight. >> it's a day -- >> i got it. >> it's a day thing. for me if you go out and it's a longer lived event then it's probably 7 -- >> down 11 bucks and 2%. >> it was a premar

i'm proud to report to you that if you look at the combined nbc comcast and universal we are somewhere between 3000 and 5000 time wes than at the did the transaction. >> i'm happy we had that discussion back then. it is still an important question. in your view, how effective in the comcast, nbc, universal issue been and should similar remedies apply in this case? >> thank you for the question. generally speaking, behavioral remedies are like medication. often time it does not work. there has been a rich respective , the most comprehensive looking at price increases. it looks at all the fact there's that go into the success of behavioral remedies. there are problems with them and even asian byde the parties being regulated. i will not get into an argument with comcast about whether it invaded certain of those remedies. as a problem with unforeseen circumstances. we have heard about that in the defense of the remedies that appeared to cover the fcc open internet order. comcast went outside of that and made issues out there. my view is behavioral remedies are to be avoided. i'm quite sur

it would create a pay tv giant about the same size as comcast, the parent company of nbc universal, if comcast is approved for its acusition and at&t which shed some of its cable customers now serves 5 million. it sold some of its cable business to comcast. these things all go in cycles. >>> facebook introducing new privacy features letting users limit how much of their personal information is seen by third party sites and apps. share only your name and e-mail address. meantime facebook is testing an anonymous log in button. i think this is a real improvement because i always find if i share my information y don't like having to share all my contact information, as well. i think that's unfair. >> it will help spread apps that use facebook, as well. test an app, bertha, than if you feel if your friend' information. >> you don't feel like you're exposing everye else. >> what a good friend bertha is. >> well, yeah a bertha coombs. worth having an a facebook friend. >> we like it. >>> we also like the warm up. how did you do yesterday? >> i did okay. the air conditioner did not work overti

when comcast bought nbc and universal, they also bought a whole bunch of other stuff.t cnbc, telemundo. when they bought cnbc, they neighborhooded it. they were supposed to do that. that was part of that purchase. but you should have been neighborhood there. they did not do it because they do not own you. they wanted people to watch cnbc, their 24-hour financial news network. they want as many eyeballs on that as possible, so they put bloomberg in the nosebleed seats. that was violation of a condition. that is where you guys fit in and that first question. if they have both the number one and number three cable tv providers and they own 12% of all television programming, they can favor their own programming. that is a problem. that is a problem for a lot of small cable networks. that is a problem for a lot of small programmers. they have come to my office and stated their fears and objections. they refuse to go public because they know they will be retaliation. >> senator franken -- we of course know the details of that situation all too well. i want to ask you what yo

if comcast starts blocking the cbs web sites and favors nbc which comcast owns? are there areas where they should be a thing the fcc is involved with? >> guest: well there is something that how to i answered. i want to be careful regarding comcast because we have a pending merger before us so i don't talk about pending mergers or potential mergers but let me give you a general perspective. everyone should worry that at any time the internet experience could be harmed for consumers so i want to keep my eyes and ears open and pay attention to anything that is brought forward. if there are legitimate experiences and legitimate harms that consumers are experiencing on the internet service i want to know about them. that's something we can look at if we actually have a viable petition before us but right now we are kind of regulating a guessing game of what might happen. >> host: commissioner o'rielly given what the court decided earlier this year with regard to net neutrality what if anything would you like to see the fcc do? >> guest: i think has a just highlighted

comcast owns nbc universal which has lots of cable channels.ou talk privately with cable executives that own other channels like disney or time warner, they will tell you they hate the merger, but the executives will not say that on the record. reed hastings came out against the deal last month. and this week the tv executive of univision raised concerns as well. as netflix resists, most firms just try to befriend comcast. so what's this all about and why should consumers care? joining me now is the guest i mentioned, peter lauria, the editor for buzz feed. one of the his articles was head lined, why big media won't stand up to comcast. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, brian. >> tell me why big media won't stand up to comcast. >> it comes down to money. if they're paying you millions and billions of dollars each year to carry your programming, you kind of don't want to bite the hand that pays you. that's one of the reasons. there are a bunch of others. another being that it takes someone with a special backbone to stand up to the

is ludicrous to argue that this is not anti-competitive when you take the enormous get -- comcast achieved the nbc universal and all of the properties and content that they own all stop now you will impressed that footprint on the rest of the country. how does that encourage competition? we must get back to creating an environment in this country where we have independent producers and broadcasters. we need local nasal stop every time we have a merger, those things offer. i do not just blame the companies that are involved are responsible. i believe the government and the asked easy. -- fcc. they have downgraded the public interest. that agency should care about that. >> there is the argument that it does not compete in any geography. if apple and google can compete, why not comcast? >> i don't think anyone should have that kind of power stop i was just talking about it and the anti--competitive aspects of it. there's no question that this is anti-competitive. the telecommunications act encourages competition. the expectations of consumers is also to encourage competition. if we are going to let t

. >> for full disclosure, comcast, nbc universal my employer is a client of a financial engine so as've looked at the product and tried to use this product. my bottom line is whatever type of financial advice you get will be helpful to you if you're not one who is savvy with your investments and i consider someone who watches this all the time but i still want a third party opinion and whether that's going online with something that you have and going to financial engines or paying someone a fee, i want to get some help but for a lot of people starting out, they don't think they can afford any help, and they still need help, and that's what a target date fund does, once you start adding more eggs to the basket, that's when you need to probably talk to someone about what to do? >> can you give us one common pitfall? >> would you recommend that more people consolidate those assets as they get older and they might have come from marriage or what have you or that it's okay to be diversified a little bit later in life? >> you know, this is a very tricky area, no doubt. as we said there's

possibility that your internet provider might be abusing its network power, if comcast starts blocking cbs web sites and features nbc which comcast owns, are there areas that the fcc should be involved in? >> guest: well, there is something -- i'll answer it this way. i want to be careful regarding comcast, because we have a pending merger before us, and so i don't talk about pending mergers or potential mergers, but let me give you a general perspective. i -- everyone should worry that anytime that the internet experience can be harmed for consumers, so i want to keep my eyes and ears open and pay attention to anything brought forward. so if there are legitimate experiences and legit mitt harms that consumers are experiencing on their internet service, i want to know about them. that's something we can look at if we actually have a viable petition before us. right now we're kind of regulating as a guessing game on what might happen. >> host: commissioner o'rielly, given what the court decided earlier this year with regard to net neutrality, what, if anything, would you like to see the fcc do? >> guest: well, i thin

comcast. directv has about 20 million customers. at&t serves nearly 6 million. nbc is owned by comcast. >>> still to come at 5:00, they set sail on the bay to broaden horiz horizons. >> some view it as the most important to do in their life. >> the bay area kids who benefit from a very special program and the secret to its success. >> here is the deal. >>> you can't let potentially radioactive material go out to the public. it is not right. >> we investigate the cleanup. now two whistleblowers reveal what they witness on the job. >> it is like russian roulette. >> monday at 11:00 on nbc bay area news. we investigate. >>> anyone who runs a nonprofit will tell you an experienced volunteer is an incredibly valuable asset so that must mean one berkeley nonprofit is about as wealthy as they come. garvin thomas shows us how it helps the kids and the volunteers in tonight's "bay area proud". >> reporter: even sitting high and dry up on shore there is a lot a kid can learn about a boat. >> where is the mast? >> reporter: put that kid in the boat and the boat in the water th

net nutrality that comcast, the parent of nbc universal must treat all internet traffic equally. the fcc will prevent broadbound companies from blocking or slowing down websites but would allow some deals like providers could pay for a fast lane for their streaming video. >>> finally this morning gm is recalling about 140,000 2014 chevy malibu because a vacuum hose could become disconnected meaning drivers would have to apply more force to the brakes and cars take a little longer to stop. it ups the number of recalls for gm this year to 20. >> the list of gm cars that haven't been recalled at this point. 20 recalled. six months into the year. >>> hopefully not recalling today's weather. >> no, we want to recall this weather. take it back. >> we didn't feel like it was just six months into the year yesterday. in fact, we saw levels that are hot by august standards right here in the bay area. plenty of records, for instance, 100 degrees in santa cruz. in santa cruz. that's the first time we have seen that kind of heat this early on. starting out nice and clear, nice and mild this m

obviously comcast wants more scale in its negotiations, apart from nbc, which comcast obviously own.nd it's the same rationale for this deal. i don't think regulate tlors be as concerned about this transaction as the comcast time-warner one. >> is it your sense that one will go through? >> i think it will go through. there may be concessions. but regulators won't be as concerned about this deal. >> so if you are customer of district tv or at&t the world you. >> absolutely. >> john, good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >>> sprint apparently didn't get the do not call message. the scc fined the company $7.5 million for failing to honor customers requests not to receive sales calls. >>> swiss banking giant credit swisse pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge of conspiracy. it admitted to helping its wealthy american clients evade millions of dollars in taxed owed in the united states. as part of the agreement reached, credit swisse gets slipped -- got slapped with a $2.6 billion fine, fines and restitution. the government says that's the highest-ever payment in a criminal ta

comcast is the parent company of nbc bay area. at&t and directv expect the deal to be finalized by this time next year. both comcast and at&t will need governmental approval on these mergers. at&t's move, actually, may make comcast's case for a merger that much stronger. >>> students at uc irvine will soon start making a spectacle of themselves with google glass. this month, the school plans on holding out google glass to every medical student. several students are testing the wearable computers. a surgeon started using google glass as well during procedures last year. he used a pair to reference x-ray images while operating on patients. >>> a new warning from health officials this morning, who say the deadly virus mers can be easier to transmit than earlier thought. a person in illinois contracted the mers during a stateside business meeting. a handshake went from the infected from the man in indiana who had been working in saudi arabia to the illinois man. and he's no longer sick. the man who has been in the middle east spent sev

comcast, by the way, parent company of nbc bay area. they expect a deal to be finalized by this time next year. comcast and at&t will need government approval for their mergers. at&t moves may make comcast case for a merger stronger. >>> new this morning, no deal, british drugmaker astrazeneca rejected an offer from pfizer who wanted to buy the company for $119 billion. in a statement released just a few hours ago, astrazeneca's board said it had confidence in its ability to flourish as an independent business. pfizer the second largest drugmaker by revenue it has been trying to get this deal done by january. >>> med students will start making a spectacle of themselves with google glass. this month the school plans to hand out pairs of google glass to every student. several medical institutions are testing the wearable computers and a surgeon at ucsf started using google glass during procedure last year. used a pair to x-ray images while operating on patients. >>> shelling out big bucks for twitch. a billion dollars. for that and the res

to argue that this is not anti-competitive when you take that in enormous footprint that comcast achieved in the nbc universal and all of the properties and content that they own, and now you will impress that footprint on the rest of the country. how in the world does that encourage competition? to a got to get back median in byron it in this country where we have some environmenta median in this country where we have some localism, independent producers of content and news. all of those things will suffer with this merger. and i don't just blame the companies involved, but also the government, particularly the federal communications commission where i set for 11 years for blessing so many of these mergers and downplaying that the agency should have at its heart. >> they also say if apple and google compete everywhere, why can't comcast? >> i don't think anybody should be able to have that kind of power. about theng anti-competitive aspects of it, there is no question this is anti-competitive across the country. and the telecommunications act, i think, encourages competition and i think the expecta

ludicrous to argue that this is not anti-competitive when you take that enormous footprint that comcast achieved in the nbcrsal properties that they own. now you're going to impress that on the rest of the country. we have got to get back to a median environment where we have some localism. we need independent reducers and broadcasters, local news. every time we have one of these mergers, all of those things suffer. i don't just blame the companies that are involved. i blame the government particularly, the fcc where i served for 11 years. we encouraged it. we downgraded the public interest. >> that was former fcc commissioner michael copps. another issue that we will look into with the merger is the threat to the internet. more than 100 technology companies including amazon and facebook have spoken out against internet service providers like comcast to charge businesses extra fees for faster service. they rally in favor of net neutrality. cory looks at how important this issue is for business. >> al gore did not invent the internet. he did invent the phrase "information superhighway." what better metaphor

and i know you have an opinion on it, comcast, which has nbc.s in the news yesterday, buying the olympics for, you know, rather princely sum. do you think they'll make money? will the merger go through? would you rather be in a hybrid like this? >> comcast is one of my favorite names. the fcc will extract their pound of flesh, but it gets approved. the charter deal, it makes it more approvable. and it makes it a better deal for all parties involved. post that deal, you lift the overhang from this approval process, they're going to buy back another $10 billion worth of stock, and they're going to get a lot of synergies. >> specifically, to nbc, doesn't that become an expense trap after a while? you keep having to buy and buy and bid up just to stay in the content that you want to stay in, then. >> well, the good news for nbc is that for the network at least, it's hard to fall out of the basement. they have -- they've done a great job in reinvigorating that network, the broadcast network. and the cable networks are doing fine. the parts are fantas

. >>> joining us now from the comcast sportsnet studios, what a game on nbc bay area with the giants.>> yeah, a little bit of a struggle but they found a way. while the giants have been great at at&t so farr this season, inner league play has been even better for the g men. the orange and black swept cleveland this month and hoping to keep that in tap for the twins. they rolled into at&t center. pablo sandoval said i'll be the gauge for what's hot or not. three run blast over the bricks. fifth of the season, quickly 3-0, giants. bottom of the fourth, brandon hicks joining the hit parade be belting his eighth of the season, 5-2. tim lincecum found problems all night. the freak escapes for the fourth time. giants holding on. lincecum, six innings, five hits, two earned runs. giants improved to 4-0 in inner league play. >> you have to battle and i'm going to do my steve. the defense played fine. i got out of jams. ultimately it was an ugly win for me. i'll take it. >> a's manager bob melvin had bigger things on his agenda than baseball today. his daughter alexi graduated today. chip hale

comcast is the parent company of nbc. >>> republican national committee chairman rice priebus says questions about hillary clinton's health and age are valid questions if she decides to run for president. here's what he had to say on sunday when asked about karl rove's recent comments, suggesting hillary clinton had a brain injury. >> look, i think that health and age is fair game, fair game for ronald reagan, fair game for john mccain. i'm not a doctor. what i do know is the issue is going to come up as it does for any person running for president. >> priebus added hillary clinton might rethink a possible run for president if, as he put s it, has another month like the one she just had. >>> california chrome is one race away from winning the triple crown, but there may be a new obstacle in the way. in his last six victory, california chrome has worn a nasal strip. horses can wear them in most states, but new york is a rare exception. this means the colt may not be allowed to wear one cure during the belmont stakes. racing officials would not allow i'll have another during the 2012 race. lik

comcast and nbc universal will broadcast the 25016 summer olympics and every olympics through 2032. but what is happening in brazil is not an isolated incident. the act of hosting major sporting events is a taxing process for the host countries. not only because of the large price tag but because of the sometimes deadly work and displacement that can happen. we saw deaths occur in the last home to the world cup, south africa, where two workers died during stadium construction in 2010. yet, the combined number of deaths in south africa and brazil may pale in comparison to what is happening right now in the country of qatar, which is set to host the world cup in the summer of 2022. qatar only has 278,000 nationals. that means that the majority of their labor is imported from countries like nepal, the philippines, india, and sri lanka. according to an investigative report by espn, 184 immigrant workers from nepal have died from cardiac arrest caused by working conditions and extreme heat just in the last year. and this is an allegation that the qatar government denies. but if the espn

comcast is the parent company of nbc bay area.at&t expects the deal to be finalized by this time next year. >> tomorrow is the last day california can register to vote for the upcoming june 3 primary election. they were also looking to hire more poll workers, especially byeli bilingual workers. >> testimony is 1 expected to wrap up tomorrow near half-moon bay. an issue? a public access road to the beach that is 1 now blocked off to the public. >> sun microsystems bought that property back in 2008. clachling the executive failed to get a permit to pass the road. >> we're talking about everything from winds to maybe some lightning coming this way? we've got a little bit of a heat wave heading our way. right now, a little breezy outside: maybe some mist out on the coastline. that will fw the first chance of seeing some showers off to the north. gusty again towards sunset. >> believe it or not, close to 5900 feet. this is how close the air will be aloft. by the time you get into tuesday, a couple inches of snow possible all the way do

nbc. they own universal studios. >> comcast has an incentive to put up one gateway into its network and then charge for getting in. it did that with netflix very recently. and if it can do that with the biggest, most popular over-the-top company, it can do it with anybody. >> to me to say to people, i'm in favor of net neutrality, but if you got enough dough, you can bolt it in a special way, i would say that sounds like two internets, a good internet and a bad internet. and i don't like the idea that somebody can control traffic. to control traffic is to control information and also to control a kind of message. >> message? the content? >> yes. if my message comes to you slowly and her message comes to you quickly, she's going to win. >> did i hear you mutter a moment ago that this potential merger between comcast and time warner is frightening? >> what's interesting, the consigliore of comcast, whose name is david cohen, he's been described this way in newspapers has said -- now this may sound scary. he says that because the american public is worried about this. it really sounds like sham

comcast is the parent company of nbc bay area. now, at&t and direct tv expect a deal to be finalized by this time next year. both comcast and at&t will need government approval for their various mergers. at&t's move actually might make it easier for comcast to argue it should have its merger. >>> new this morning, no deal. astrazeneca rejected a deal from u.s.-based pfizer who wanted to buy the company for $119 billion. in a statement just a couple hours ago, astrazeneca's board said it has the confidence to flourish. it has been trying to get this deal done since january. >>> medstudents at uc irvine will make a spectacle of themselves with google glass. this month the school plans on handing out a pair of google glass to every medical student. the first medical school to do so. several medical institutions testing the wearable computers. a surgeon at ucsf started using google glass last year. he used a pair to reference x-ray images while operating on patients. >>> christina loren joins us so storms will help us with this dry gla

comcast completes its acquisition of time warner cable. at&t serves nearly 6 million people. for full disclosure, nbcion, is sewned by comcast. >>> a dangerous and deadly virus may be spreading in america. health officials say an illinois man is now the third american to test positive for the mers virus. it has sickened nearly 600 people worldwide and killed more than 150 people, mostly in saudi arabia. the virus has symptoms similar to the flu, including fever, coughing, and shortness of wreth, but the latest case was transmitted pe eted person to p. >> according to turkish authorities, they have ordered the arrest of 18 people where 300 miners were killed in a coal mine incident last week. the last two missing miners have been recovered from the site. despite claims negligence had nothing to do with that, many angry protesters have taken to the street. the turkish government has pledged a thorough investigation into those deaths. >>> african leaders met in paris today for an international summit aimed at rescuing more than 200 school girls kidnapped by terrorists last month. they're targeting boko

. >> don't forget, giants and twins at 7:00 on comcast sportsnet bay area, and coming up right here on nbcay area at 5:00, we've got game three of the western conference finals. kings and blackhawks as chicago looks to bounce back from an ugly game two loss. the series is tied at 1-1. >> we're excited to play. we're excited to have an opportunity to redeem ourselves and get back to playing the way we know we can and the way we did earlier in that game in game two. >> we want to play hard and we want to make sure there's some intensity, hard to play against, but at the same time, between the whistles and no unnecessary penalties. >> before we get out of here, kick it with some soccer. how about champions league final. real madrid against atletico madrid. second half, sergio ramos's header. we head to extra time. garreth bale heads it in. real madrid wins 4-1, their tenth european title. that will do it for sports. we'll see you later on tonight. >> thanks so much. nbc nightly news coming up next. the answer to treating your dog's fleas and ticks is staring you right in the face. nexgard fro

joining us a the code conference is brian roberts the chairman and ceo of comcast the parent company of nbcjulia joins us as well. the kind is going to create a cohas sis since the break jun of at&t. did selling this deal get more difficult? >> i don't think so. they're entitled to an opinion. they got a lot of facts i think they didn't look at right in the days of at&t that was one phone company. it's truly an antiquated notion to say there's no competition in video. we've lost video customers for 26 straight quarters until two quarters ago from satellite, directv, dish network, verizon, at&t and fios and u-verse. people who are core cutting. a changing space never been moving faster, and i think that they were looking at the wrong thing. "the washington post," chicago tribune, all had a different point of view. they're entitled to their snoon so much opposition centers on the idea that you controlling so much broadband access, bad for the little guy, for start-ups. what are they getting wrong? >> first of all, both in video and in broadband we don't compete with time warner. we have to st

comcast business built for business. >>> back now with more "first read" and our new nbc news poll on how americans view capital punishment. the botched excuse in oklahoma has not changed the public view on the death penalty but over the past hundred years, it's clear support for the death penalty is slowly eroding. the death penalty opponents have a long way to go. 59% of registered voters favor the death penalty for the ultimate punishment for murder. this number is in line with surveys done in the last two years before clayton lockett's death in oklahoma but down considerably from the 90s, the three strikes and you're out era. since 2007, six states have abolished the death penalty as more dna evidence has been used. although inmates remain on death row in connecticut, maryland and new mexico, they're not going to face the death penalty. now one in three people tell us if lethal injections are no longer viable, which is the issue here, there's drug shortages and they caused this problem with the botched execution in the first place, those people think executions should be stopped altogether. but 20% support the gas cha

comcast not to be in the business of owning content. they can provide cable infrastructure or they can all the services, like nbc or whatever.uyss you have the cable and they have a different set of rules. that is because of the historic nature. it is different. >> they are trying to do the same thing. the phone companies are trying to dole outs similar services they do not want net neutrality to end. they can impose an old-fashioned telephone is that on this. they want to charge you for everything. phone companies want to charge you per minute. for max fan point, we need to have a more competitive landscape. we need this to be a transport service. we need to make sure that the content and the pipes are separated. you have to treat it like a utility. it is a utility. it has to be treated like one. that way if you want more competition, you can use smart technologies. >> we will have much more you after this i break. coming up, how will a time warner comcast eel effect -- deal affect startups? that is coming up on this special edition of "bloomberg west." ♪ welcome back to a special edition of "bloomberg west." we are talking

the change would come as comcast unites with time warner cable. joining us now is the former ceo of nbc universal. to see you this morning. what great timing on the morning after this news. does this make sense to you? complex -- >> you have to look at the technology involved and all the activity in media today. are in at&t and directv and comcast, you have land lines , telephones which we have had for a long time. cellular telephone, towers. one is in the ground and then you have towers. then you have satellite television, which is directv. then you have the internet. comcast has three of those. ground, cable, and telephone. that is look at caber -- cable at&t has half of the cellular business. that is unique to them. verizon has the other half. lot of fixedve a phone business. they're trying to put fiber down. they are not in that game in a big way. directv does not have phone, does not have cellular, and does not have internet. it has connections but it is very slow, relatively speaking. the question for at&t is, is this a reaction because they got shut out of europe or phone acquisi

the time warner comcast merger has been under a lot of scrutiny. you have been at the nbcnot just with the olympics but as executive producer of the today show. what do you say -- how do you see today's meeting and what do you say about this merger changing the industry as a whole? >> i am pleased to report that i have nothing to add there because i have not been following it. i have been doing my olympic stuff. i have been trying to come up with fun facts. you have to consider that in 2032, the last olympics of the current deal, there are athletes competing there that have not been born yet. >> pretty amazing. well jim, thank you for joining me today. executive producer for the nbc olympics, congratulations on the deal and good luck on your trip and a couple of weeks. >> thank you. >> coming up, my guest is biggestone of the makers of construction materials and warren buffett is the company's biggest shareholder. ♪ -- janet yellen offered a mostly up up outlook for the u.s. economy in her testimony. but there was one statement causing concern. >> we will need to see a pic

comcast business built for business. >>> this may be one of my all-time favorite data bank numbers. 40%, according to our new nbc/wall streetournal poll, 40% have someone in their house with a tattoo. america has changed big time on that. in 1999, it was 21%. take a look at these numbers. 15 years ago, 79% said they read the newspaper in print at least three times a week. now that's 47%. and serving your military and having family dinner at least five times a work. i love how high that poll was. and 69% shop online. a majority of people say they now pay their bills online and our poll found that 32% of americans play video games on a console, not just on your ipad or, you know, x-box, play station, all that business. all right, coming up, who's really to blame as the prospect of middle east peace talks fail again? we have one of the first u.s. tv interviews with israel's new ambassador to the united states next. but first, today's tdr trivia question brought to you by our own steve kornacki, who will be joining us in a few minutes. in what year was a woman last elected to congress from new jersey? i think i know who that is

comcast didn't really agree to them. they got imposed as merger condition when they bought nbc universal and that's what may happen this timeernment may allow it to go through and impose this settlement-free interconnect, the strong net neutrality. so that may be how it works out. >> if it's a worse case scenario from your perspective and you get throttled by the providers, what's your plan b? >> there is no plan b if consumer can't get to netflix. then they're pretty frustrated. fortunately they've got their iphone, they've got, you know, internet at home, they've got lots of ways to access the internet and the consensus is how pretty strong the consumer should be able to access the services they paid for. >> well, speed for netflix has improved as a result of this deal. just as if i went to walmart and looking for a procter & gamble product i might see it at eye level because walmart gives me that same shelf space. is it different from that? >> it's a little different. it's recovered. if you look at other providers, cox, cable vision, they've been great consistently. google fiber. comcast fell off the truck and service go

comcast business built for business. >>> by now you have likely seen this video once or twice or maybe three times. surveillance video obtained by tmz not verified by nbc a man that appears to be her brother-in-law, jay-z beyonce stands by as another man, believed to be the bodyguard, tries to hold her back. at no point do you see jay-z strike back. still no comment from reps of the couple or solange, the incident went viral almost immediately and dominated social media for 24 hours now. the anybody one trend yesterday afternoon and still this morning on twitter, that hash tag right there, what jay-z said to solange, natasha u banks is founder of young, black and fabulous. we will never said. that is a family that is notoriously private. >> you will never know what happened and it doesn't help there's no audio. for us we have to speculate what happened, what happened before they walk on the elevator. when she walks on the elevate, almost like she was ready. >> waiting for those doors to shut. >> waiting for him to step one foot -- >> something happened to set her off. was it just one thing? or is this a deep rooted issue going on between sisters, older

nbc. >> when we come back "the new york times" editorial board coming out against a comcast/time warner. aryeh bourcough more on that after the break. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ my mom works at ge. trwith secure wifie for your business. it also comes with public wifi for your customers. not so with internet from the phone company. i would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. but that would require wifi. switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business. ♪ >>> about an hour in trading some of the stories we're watching, 7:33 on the west coast, conference boards consumer confidence index rising to 83 even in line with forecasts. shares of hillshire brands up 21%. pilgrim's pride offering to acquire the maker of jimmy dean sausages for $45 a share in cash. dow components disney

comcast and time warner have national scale. that is the number one benefit of that transaction. for the first time they can buy national advertising on nbcfter the sunday ticket. i think the nfl ends up being a real winner out of this whole multiple deal making. >> are you surprised there is no break up fee on this whole transaction? directv pays one but not at&t. >> i'm listening. this is a deal they are trying to get for dividends. first of all, i don't really think dish is coming in at this price. i think charlie talked about this on his past conference call. charlie talked about the limitations of the satellite business going forward. i'm not sure he would want to buy more of something he doesn't believe in in the first place. >> where does this leave charlie, by the way? >> verizon needs spectrum. we will see what happens with sprint t-mobile. most don't think that can go through. they can sit and wait to partner with those guys. there are other companies impacted for the need for wireless broadband pipes that we don't talk about a lot. google, apple, amazon. you never know if they want to get into this business. obviously dish woul