Regulators eyeing Comcast for possible NBCU deal violations

Federal regulators are weighing taking action against Comcast for allegedly violating 2011 agreements that enabled the cable giant to buy NBCUniversal.

The allegations were made during the public comment period of the review of Comcast’s now-defunct plan to acquire Time Warner Cable and officials at both the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department have spent the past few weeks sifting through those claims, several Washington insiders confirmed to The Post.

In some instances, Comcast agreed not to take certain actions, like interfere in another company’s actions — and Comcast agreed to support certain initiatives, sources said.

“They’re sitting on a ton of potential evidence,” one source close to the process explained. “They’re asking themselves if they can create a separate proceeding or whether they need a new complaint to allow [the evidence] to be introduced.”

Alleged complaints being parsed by regulators include:

•  Comcast tied linear programming negotiations with digital deals — forcing programmers to sell to Comcast digital rights to their content on the same or better terms than they sold it to other online video distributors — when they promised not to.
•  Some minority-focused channels complained they were given carriage deals on Comcast systems but that they were not made widely available enough to support a real business.
• NBCUniversal’s just-announced deal to use Comcast set-top box data to help it win advertising creates an uneven playing field.
•  Comcast’s alleged comments that Hulu, which it co-owns, should not be sold by its other owners — 21st Century Fox and Disney — allegedly broke an agreement not to interfere with the running of the digital video service.

One problem the feds have is whether the information collected can be used for the purposes of a separate action.

The FCC was allowed to view programming agreements with Comcast on a very limited basis.

Comcast has already been fined for violating one of the 2011 agreements.

In 2012, the cable giant was fined $800,000 by the FCC for failing to adequately promote the availability of stand-alone broadband services.

Regulators may view the fact that Comcast didn’t win approval for its purchase of TWC as enough of a punishment, sources said.

Others point out that the NBCUniversal deal terms need upholding — even after the TWC deal failed.

A Comcast spokeswoman said the firm files annual compliance reports, which no one has challenged — in particular regarding online video or minority channels.

“Comcast had no role in making, evaluating, or reconsidering any management decisions at Hulu, including the decision by Disney and Fox first to put Hulu on the market and subsequently the decision by them not to sell Hulu,” the spokeswoman said.

The FCC and the DOJ both declined to comment.