Report: NBC-VU hits snag at FTC over fees.(This Just In)(the Federal Trade Commission shows concerns over NBC's plans for using its merger with Vivendi Universal Entertainment to gain higher programming feess from cable operators)(Brief Article)

Multichannel News, January, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly concerned that NBC plans to use its pending merger with Vivendi Universal Entertainment to extract higher programming fees from cable operators. The FTC's concerns were reported Dec. 31 in USA Today, which cited unnamed individuals. FTC spokesman Mitch Katz declined to comment on the story.

FTC officials discovered NBC's fee-hike strategy in documents that the network turned over to the agency as part of the merger review, the newspaper said.