By the end of the week, it’s likely that GE and Comcast will have agreed on a deal to give most of NBC Universal to the cable company. Owning a chunk of the content pie is something that Comcast has been angling for – most famously, they tried making a deal for Disney back in the day. But is it good for consumers? Vote above.source
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is ready drop Google, based on this interview. (It’s long but the meat of what we care about is right at the beginning.) However, as paidContent points out, he doesn’t completely understand how the Wall Street Journal uses Google to promote stories even with its pay wall. (Instead of just getting chunks of stories, you get the first couple free, then get blocked.) Regarding the evolution of newspapers to paid content, Murdoch says, “Everyone can afford a newspaper. They’re the cheapest things in the world and what you get out of it is fabulous. And it will be even cheaper when you get it electronically.” We hope so, Rupe.source
10.2%the level of unemployment for October; that’s up significantly from the 9.8% mark in September, as well as much higher than the 9.9% level economists predicted source
29 timesthe number of links The Drudge Report gave to Reuters the first ten months of 2005, after which Andrew Breitbart apparently nailed down a content deal source