Mediagazer: Comcast completes NBC Universal merger (Reuters)

5:15 PM ET, January 30, 2011

Top News:

Comcast completes NBC Universal merger — (Reuters) - Comcast Corp has completed its takeover of NBC Universal, creating a $30 billion media behemoth that controls not just how television shows and movies are made but how they are delivered to people's homes.

Discussion: TVNewser

Johnnie L. Roberts / The Wrap:

It's Got NBCU ... Now Comcast Has a Fight for Reinvention — From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, all eyes will be glued to Comcast's top-priority mission: scripting television's greatest comeback narrative at also-ran NBC, which the cable giant formally took control of on Friday.

Discussion: Multichannel and Broadcasting & Cable

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

U.S. Media and Entertainment Deal Volume Rose 3% in 2010 … NEW YORK - U.S. entertainment and media industry merger and acquisition activity rose slightly in 2010 when looking at the number of deals and outpaced the overall U.S. deal market, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Discussion: MediaPost

Aljazeera:

Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau — Network's licences cancelled and accreditation of staff in Cairo withdrawn by order of information minister. — The Egyptian authorities are revoking the Al Jazeera Network's licence to broadcast from the country, and will be shutting down its bureau office in Cairo, state television has said.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Future of Journalism, The Wire and Associated Press

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Why Al-Jazeera Owns Internet TV's Egypt Coverage — Tanks were greeted by protesters, police vehicles went up in flames and looters started to empty the building of the ruling party NDP in Cairo late Friday: These and more astonishing images of a regime on the verge of collapse …

Discussion: BuzzMachine, News: News blog, Al Jazeera Blogs, Lost Remote, Multichannel, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, Boing Boing, New York Times and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

John Naughton / Guardian:

Why the BBC's old guard called time on the Wibbly Wobbly Web — The corporation's online arm is being cut off at the elbow... and many are secretly delighted — So the BBC is slimming down, in response to government pressure. The World Service is to lose five of its foreign-language services, and a quarter of its staff.

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Exclusive: Yahoo Delivering 1 Million Video Views for Washington Post's “The Quick Fix” — Could Chris Cillizza Beat Rachel Maddow? — WASHINGTON, DC — “The Fast Fix” a daily, 60-second daily video update on Beltway news featuring the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza has exceeded online viewership …

Michelle Kung / Speakeasy:

‘Like Crazy’ Wins Big at Sundance Film Festival 2011 — Earlier this evening, actor Tim Blake Nelson hosted the awards ceremony for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Dressed as a snowflake (prompting actress/director Vera Farmiga to dub him 'Tim Flake Nelson'), he bumped chests …

Discussion: The Wrap

Steve Safran / Lost Remote:

Networks are paying close attention to social media — Encouraging news came out of Friday's #TVNext conference in Boston: the networks are paying attention to social media and are working on strategies to merge it with their TV shows. The Boston advertising agency Hill Holiday put …

Discussion: CBS Boston and Future of Journalism