How Comcast sealed the NBCU deal

Comcast Corp.'s top strategists knew months ago that success in acquiring NBC Universal, despite the objections of a bevy of powerful opponents, rested with the little-known but lyrically named Mignon Clyburn.

The 48-year-old Clyburn, a Democrat, daughter of a South Carolina congressman and the former owner-publisher of a weekly magazine, joined the Federal Communications Commission in 2009 and was one of the five commission members who would decide if Comcast could assume NBCU in a blockbuster, $30 billion deal.

The Comcast lobbyists, led by executive vice president David Cohen, studied the FCC members the way NFL coaches prep for the college draft. Clyburn, they decided, held the key vote, so they courted her with plans and promises meant to convince her that the new Comcast conglomerate would be a gentle giant.

And it worked.

Early last week, Clyburn cast the final 'yes' for the deal that will transform the nation's largest cable distributor, Comcast, into a $50 billion media giant with movie studios, an over-the-air TV network, and cable channels.

With her vote, Comcast crossed the finish line on more than a year of heated lobbying for a deal that many thought was unwise and would create a cable-distribution and programming company that could dominate the emerging multimedia universe and hurt competitors and consumers alike.

Comcast was not preordained to prevail in its pursuit of NBCU. But it toughed out a victory over opposition that seemed, in the end, fragmented and overwhelmed - and willing to concede with grudging admiration what the company had accomplished on the Washington battleground.

"They did a great job," said Charles Herring, president of Wealth TV cable channel in San Diego. "I think it's good for Comcast. I would be thrilled if I was a Comcast shareholder. My concern is that I think it will shut out independent programmers."

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the nonprofit Media Access Project, which opposed the merger, said it was a "textbook case of lobbying on Capitol Hill and at the federal regulatory agencies."

"Clearly Brian Roberts was willing to spend whatever it took to get this done," Schwartzman said, noting that he believed that Comcast "spent extravagantly and wisely."