jeff zucker is here to tell us about it. good to see you.r the investors, the key question is, how is the deal with comcast proceeding? are you still hopeful to close it by year-end, fourth quarter, and do you see any impediments that you might not have foreseen a few months ago? >> no, tyler. we're in the middle of the regulatory process. it is proceeding pretty much as we expected. we think it is still on a time line to close some time later this year in the fourth quarter and i think all signals point to that. obviously we're working through the regulatory issues that the fcc and doj are looking at and we feel comfortable and confident that everything will be fine and on target. >> no foreseeable snags there. let's move on to the questions of sort of the greening of the network. it is an interesting thing. it is across all of the properties of nbc. i'm wondering whether what began as a kind of public-spirited approach has now transformed, morphed in some way, to a selling point to advertisers. in other words, do we -- does nbc, and do oth

jeff zucker came to me -- this is, okay.d this is good for nbc, i said, i know it's good for nbc. that's not the issue. the question is, is it good for the american people? and to me what we have is a situation where if this goes through, are we going to have a situation where verizon and at&t see the need to buy networks and studios, and are we going to get all our information -- because comcast is the largest cable provider and the third largest internet provider. are we going to be seeing a situation where five companies are controlling all the information that we get? and i think that's a very dangerous situation. are you familiar with the financial syndication laws in the early '90s? >> somewhat, yeah. >> okay. do you remember that basically the networks were prohibited from owning their own programs. >> right. >> and that was reversed. and during the testimony that all the different networks -- sorry for the sound here -- all the different networks said why would we by our own, you know, favor our own programs? we're i

jeff zucker came to me and said -- this is, ok. this is good for nbc and i said i know it is good for nbc. that is not the issue. is it good for the american people? and to main, what we have is a situation where if this goes through, are we going to have a situation where for rise and an at&t sees the need to buy networks and studios, and are we going to get all of our information -- because comcast is the largest cable provider and the third largest internet provider, will we see a situation where five companies are controlling all the information that we get? i think that is a very dangerous situation. are you familiar with the financial syndication loss in the early 1990's? '90s? >> somewhat, yeah. >> you remember that a sickly the networks were prohibited from owning their own programs, and that was reversed and during the testimony that all the different networks-- sorry for the sound here. the different networks said why would we buy our own, favor our own programs. we are in the business-- we are in the business of gettin

she went to cbs, talked to les moonves, jeff zucker. they both passed on it.y didn't think she was big enough. bravo also, not a choice. tell us, explain to viewers why she landed on tlc instead of -- >> it's a fascinating story because it's basically a story of marketing. and tlc has decided that they want to market to -- they don't want to market to the coasts, which is the bravo audiences, "real housewives," "top chef." tlc wants to market to the heartland with very sort of inspiring stories of regular people. that's why they put the captain sullenberger documentary on. they feel that sarah palin is a product that their consumers will want to see. and i think that's just a fascinating story about looking at her almost as a consumer product that you're packaging and selling to america. >> you know what's so interesting, tina, also is she's a consumer product without much handling. she is making her choices -- one of the maddening things, you talk to people in washington, she doesn't take anybody's advice. >> she doesn't. >> her husband. >> she's not really l