Keith Olbermann may have unknowingly done Comcast a favor in the last week when MSNBC's most popular commentator announced startling audiences that he had just hosted his last show on the cable news network.

It is true that the incident was embarrassing for Comcast. Many of Olbermann's fans thought whether the No. 1 cable and broadband provider exhilarated from winning federal approval to buy NBC Universal, secretly dismissed the best-known liberal voice on television. Comcast denied any involvement.

But the widespread doubt gave Comcast bosses a cold reminder that they'll start playing a new ballgame on Friday when they square up their deal with General Electric for fifty one percent of a joint venture that includes NBC Universal.

Once the deal gets completed Comcast (CMCSA) will face the amount of public scrutiny and criticism unlike anything it ever experienced.

Comcast is not just becoming the country’s most powerful media and entertainment major with assets in broadcast and cable TV, movies, the Internet and theme parks.

The company is setting its foot to become the dominant newscaster of television with huge influence on civic life.

Comcast will be in control of the No. 1 evening newscast which is The NBC Nightly News with Brian William, morning newscast called The Today Show, and Sunday talk show called Meet the Press. On cable, CNBC is focused on business news, while MSNBC is focused on politics.

National news operations of NBC in the year of 2009 had generated about $1.8 billion in revenue with sixty percent coming from cable. The estimate was given by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.

NBC also plays important role in local news. It owns twenty five NBC and Telemundo stations, which combined together, reach thirty six percent of all households. Other companies own two hundred and thirty four NBC affiliates. Newscasts generate almost forty five percent of the ad sales at a typical TV station.