Take ‘Deep Breath’ on Baker’s Hiring by Comcast, Cohen Advises

Cohen said some but not most of the blame for the gap between those who buy broadband and those who don’t is due to cost, and he took responsibility for that. He looked forward to local agreements NBCUniversal-owned TV stations affiliated with the NBC network will seek to strike for “hyperlocal” news. He said Comcast is on track to exceed some of its programming diversity commitments as part of the NBCUniversal transaction. The company is preparing to release requests for proposals on local news cooperation arrangements “to create a destination for people who are thirsty for more local content,” Cohen said in his speech. And he said Comcast can play an important role on retransmission consent deals between subscription-video providers and TV stations.

The news sharing deal with NBCUniversal’s KNSD San Diego and Voice of San Diego (CD Jan 11 p5) is an example of a partnership that works out so that viewers get a balanced mix of political views, Cohen said during Q-and-A. He was asked by Media Institute Vice President Rick Kaplar how NBCUniversal would try to keep political balance, given that Kaplar described many local news co-op websites as being “left of center.” Not all of the sites fit into that category, Cohen replied: And “there are a lot of public television stations that are very interested in getting into this space, and they don’t bring any political agenda to the table."

Cohen seeks a “holistic” approach to broadband deployment, so that hurdles standing in the way of some U.S. residents can be addressed. Hurdles include “low levels of digital literacy,” and many other barriers, he said. “The cost of Internet service … is clearly one of the barriers to broadband adoption -- it is only one,” Cohen said in his speech. “And all of the research is conclusive that it’s not the biggest barrier.” One wouldn’t know that from discussion on the subject in some quarters, where it “starts and ends with the cost of broadband service,” Cohen said. “We don’t have to fight about this or dwell on the issue, though, because Comcast recognizes we have a role in solving the problem,” he continued: “We are going to try to put together a holistic package” addressing “a wide variety of barriers to broadband adoption, one of which is” the company’s “responsibility, and the others of which are not."

"We're negotiating deals with our suppliers to bring the price down” on what’s needed to get fast Internet service, so Comcast can make that gear available to certain consumers for free, Cohen said. Those would-be customers could use a $150 voucher from Comcast, without paying out-of-pocket costs, he said. “Digital literacy will be preloaded” on some products, available in schools and “on a periodic and continuing basis over the course of a year through some nonprofits that we've already established relationships with in the digital literacy space” like Common Sense Media and One Economy, Cohen said. “Hopefully we can generate some momentum across the country” to replicate this, even though the cable operator isn’t seeking government money.

If 2010 was a year of seeking approval for the NBCUniversal deal, this year is about the “managing the transition,” which is going well, Cohen told those at a luncheon sponsored by the Media Institute. “Certainly” there have been “no real surprises on the bad side of the ledger” in the integration, after “the long and fair regulatory review,” Cohen said. Three months before being approached by Comcast to head up lobbying in Washington for NBCUniversal, Baker voted for the deal approval order. She and fellow Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell at the time jointly called Comcast-NBCUniversal an example of “problematic” FCC merger reviews.

Comcast hired Baker knowing she'd never be able to lobby the agency on any aspect of the deal, Cohen said. It wanted her because her experience working with Republicans and Democrats and as a “thought leader” can be well put to use within the company and on Capitol Hill, he said during Q-and-A. “Her ethics, her honesty and her integrity have never been questioned” and in “the bubble” of Washington she’s been able to get “things done and accomplish important public policy objectives” with members of both parties, Cohen said. “At the same time, I understand the concerns that have been expressed, the concerns about revolving-door movement between people inside government and outside government.” Cohen noted that he’s made that transition, as have others in the audience. Cohen was chief of staff to then Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.

"To be fair,” the way to deal with such concerns is by having “reasonable rules and reasonable line-drawing and reasonable barriers that protect the integrity of the individual and the government, and we've got those rules,” Cohen said. They're the “most stringent that they've ever been” in the U.S., so much so that “a lot of people were worried or are worried that may be too extreme of a reaction to the concerns around the revolving door,” the executive continued. “I am not questioning it. I don’t have a problem with that rule and more importantly Meredith Attwell Baker doesn’t have a problem with that rule."

"Meredith is one of those people who actually takes ethical responsibilities seriously,” Cohen said. “And I will say definitely, clearly and directly that Meredith did absolutely everything she was required to do under the ethics laws, and so did Comcast. And unless someone wants to change the rules in the middle of the game, there should be a higher standard than creating any cloud of throwing around unsubstantiated” allegations about her taking the job, he said. “I think Meredith’s statement on Friday should have put this to rest,” where she said she immediately recused herself from all matters at the FCC, not just those involving Comcast and NBCUniversal, when she was first approached April 18 about the job. “Nothing inappropriate happened here. All of the rules were followed. And it’s probably time to move on” to deal with budgetary and deficit concerns, Cohen said, “to some things that really will advance the future of the country.”

"The headline here should be that Meredith is so good, she’s got such terrific instinct and judgment, she is such a qualified person, that we made the decision to hire her notwithstanding the limitations on her ability to lobby political appointees in the administration and in the FCC,” Cohen said in answering another question on Baker’s hiring. “We hire for the long haul. At some point under some administration Meredith will have the ability to be involved in some executive branch lobbying two or four years down the road, but not sooner,” and never on matters on which she voted at the FCC, he continued. “Her ability to lobby in the prohibited space, which are broad but they are not all encompassing, became a secondary consideration” in hiring her, Cohen said.

He hopes those in the audience “will take a step back” and consider if it’s “a matter that continues to really deserve the attention that it’s received,” though it hasn’t become much of an issue outside Washington, Cohen continued. “I actually don’t know that it was ill-timed,” he said in answering another question. “Sometimes in life external matters control your timing. We had an opening” when Bob Okun, who was in the audience, decided to leave NBCUniversal, Cohen said. Baker “had a nomination pending in the White House that we believe imminently was going to be sent up to Congress, and as soon as that happened -- and presumably by the way she would have been confirmed for another term,” the window to approach her about a job was a narrow one, he added: Baker couldn’t be renominated “and say `thanks for the ride, guys, now I am leaving."

On programming and cable distribution, 2011 has “very few must-achieve items on the agenda” in Washington before regulators and legislators, Cohen said. He doesn’t think anything will happen legislatively on privacy, although it and copyright “remains a central issue” for Comcast. He mentioned the pending AllVid proceeding at the FCC, in which the agency seeks to propose rules for all pay-TV providers to connect to consumer electronics, as one the company is watching. The last 18 months saw more progress about online privacy between content owners and distributors, such as Comcast and Time Warner, than the previous five years, Cohen said. “And there is some progress we can make around those issues legislatively and even from a voluntary industry perspective."

Retrans is on the agenda for Comcast, too, Cohen said in response to another question. “One of the big struggles is to figure out who has the authority and jurisdiction to do what in that space.” The “new Comcast” may have “constructive role that we can play in that dialogue” as the subscription-video provider that pays the most in retrans fees and also gets them for NBCUniversal’s 25 stations, Cohen said. “We've begun to participate in all sides of that discussion,” he said of talks with NBC affiliates for the network to negotiate retrans deals with pay-TV companies on their behalf, he noted. “We actually think that that is part of a solution for having rational negotiations between pay-TV providers and affiliates,” he said. “If you look at some, but not all, of the bitter retrans negotiations, they inevitably involve splinter groups” of affiliates, with the blackout on Cablevision of TV stations owned by News Corp.’s Fox as “the exception that proves the rule,” Cohen said: “We think that the” issue “that we're trying to work through with our affiliates could be a part of the solution certainly for our company and for the providers that do business with us.”