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The Federal Co... mmunications Commission needs to restrict Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable company, from selling the TV stations or nine regional sports networks in a bundle with national cable channels it would own such as Bravo and USA Network, the American Cable Association said in a statement. The group is concerned that its members -- small cable service providers -- could face higher prices for Comcast-controlled channels.

The FCC requirement would "prevent the media giant from harming competitors and their subscribers," Matt Polka, president of the Pittsburgh-based group, said. The group said 150 of its members are in communities served by NBC stations or Comcast sports networks.

Comcast said the group is seeking to break up the channel packages media companies typically assemble. "It's improper to apply an industry-wide issue to only one company," Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, said.

The FCC had set Thursday as a deadline for comments on Comcast's proposal to buy NBC Universal, which is a unit of General Electric. The Justice Department also is reviewing the merger, which was proposed in December.

Under the $28 billion deal, Comcast would gain control of NBC's television network; NBC TV stations in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington; cable channels; and a library of more than 4,000 movies.

The merger "will bring about a reinvigoration of broadcasting through an infusion of new capital and energy into NBC," Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote in a blog entry Thursday.

Comcast has pledged good-faith negotiations to carry NBC's competitors on its cable systems, promising not to shift sports events such as the Olympics and National Football League games carried by NBC to cable.

The FCC should approve the merger ''without further delay,'' Alfred Liggins, chief executive officer of Lanham-based Radio One, owner of stations and a video channel serving a black audience, wrote in a letter posted on the agency's Web site. Comcast carries the company's TV One channel and ''has a history of giving diverse voices a megaphone," Liggins wrote in the letter filed Wednesday. But opponents say Comcast-NBC will have an incentive to raise prices and withhold programs from rivals.

The merger would eliminate online competition between Comcast and NBC Universal properties and hurt broadcasters vying for local advertising with NBC units and Comcast, according to advocacy groups Free Press, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America and Media Access Project.

"Comcast will use leverage gained from the merger to engage in anti-competitive tactics," the groups wrote in a document prepared for filing with the FCC.

NBC has long-term commitments to provide content to the Hulu online service, partly owned by GE, and Comcast intends to expand programming for online viewers, the company said in documents prepared for the FCC.

Comcast added that the merger wouldn't diminish competition in local advertising because the markets for cable and broadcast advertisements are different.

(Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television, has filed papers opposing the merger as it is currently proposed. The Washington Post Co. owns six broadcast television stations as well as Cable One, which provides phone, Internet and television service in 19 Southern and Western states.)

-- Bloomberg News