Versus: The Flyers TV Network?

It's not as far-fetched as you may think.

Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying the broadcast is biased towards the Flyers -- it's not, despite what Pittsburgh may say. Versus is actually doing a pretty good job of covering the playoffs, in my opinion. They haven't really had any major snags, although their studio team is lacking any names recognizable to the casual fan. But that's neither here nor there.

Let's get back to what we were here for in the first place. A business lesson. So, we have the Flyers and Versus, two seemingly separate organizations. Let's do about .01 seconds of research. Who are each of them owned by?

From the Versus website:

VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

And from the Flyers website:

Copyright © 1999-2008 Comcast Spectacor, L.P. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.

See any similarities?

Now it's clear that there haven't been any serious conflicts of interest here. I really don't think that the coverage on Versus has been biased towards the Flyers in any way. It's just interesting what happens -- or what could happen -- in this country when we have so many large conglomerates.