Much Ado Over Fox News Channel: Can NBC News buy the Fox News Channel?

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NBCUniversal's new logo. © 2017 NBCUniversal, a Comcast company

On Quora, Rich Madhok asks
Can NBC News buy the Fox News Channel?
No. NBC News cannot buy the Fox News Channel. Here’s why:
  1. NBC News is not now, and never was, an independent entity capable of purchasing any of its competitors. It started out as the news division of the National Broadcasting Company back in the days of radio. (Fun fact: Until 1943, NBC had two networks: NBC Blue and NBC Red. In 1943, RCA spun-off NBC Blue and sold it to Edward J. Noble’s American Broadcasting Service. which renamed the Blue Network as the American Broadcasting Company.)
  2. The National Broadcasting Company itself is not an independent company; it’s now part of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast.
  3. Comcast is not interested in acquiring another news channel; it already owns NBC News (over the air), MSNBC, and CNBC. It does not need Fox News Channel, nor does it desire to acquire Fox News Channel in order to “silence” it or change its status as a conservative propaganda organ.
  4. More relevantly, Rupert Murdoch and his family, the owners of “New Fox” (parent company of Fox News Channel), are not interested in selling any more assets to NBC or anyone else. The Murdochs already sold off the entertainment-only divisions of 21st Century Fox to The Walt Disney Company, which also owns the American Broadcasting Company and ESPN.
So if you are a Fox News Channel fan and live in fear that “evil liberals” are going to buy Fox News and close your Ministry of Propaganda down, rest easy. It’s not happening.

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