Later Roberts brought up some advice Chernin gave him during due diligence: “Don’t do this deal if you can’t fall in love with NBC.” Thanks to ad improvements, an uptick in viewing, and better credit markets, Roberts said, “I feel better about doing the deal today than I did five months ago.” It helps that GE, unlike Disney (NYSE: DIS) and other content companies, was interested in selling, removing the main obstacle Comcast has faced as it tried to expand over the last few years.”

Some more highlights:

—On NBC News: Chernin asked what he would do when Keith Olberman gets on the air and starts saying something that upsets Senate Republicans as Comcast is trying to get the deal done or if thousands of people cancel after Universal makes a controversial picture. Pushing a little harder, Chernin asked about editorial control: “Are you saying you’ll never interfere or are you saying you won’t interfere for content reasons but to try to shape and guide the company?” “I think the real world is let’s have that conversation in 12 months, in six months, when we really are playing with live ammunition and it’s not just a theoretical.”

Roberts raved about NBC News but missed a chance to be definitive about leaving the network with editorial control, something I’m told he has been more clear about in private discussion. Instead, Roberts spoke of not being any better or worse than GE—a mistake given that many people believe, fairly or not, that GE has interfered with news editorial on occasion. “The single most awesome asset that comes in this deal is NBC News,” he said, the need for “getting that right and keeping that down the middle, whatever down the middle really means. Meet The Press is an incredibly important institution…. how do we best preserve, wall it off, let it have its own voice. I look at GE. I can’t imagine we’re going to be worse, better, different in that respect other than to say how are we going to protect it, put the right leaders there, not interfere.” He spoke about investing in the news, not continuing to cut, so the overall message was very positive for NBC News—and very public-service oriented for anyone from the FCC listening in.

—On corporate culture: Roberts promised: “We’re not going to Comcast-ize NBC Universal. ... We don’t even have a Comcast ‘way,’ so to speak.” He added, “Even NBC Universal doesn’t have one culture.” 

—On cable’s image: Roberts would like cable to get more credit for changing the viewing universe. “There was no television the way we think of it today—and yet, we’ve been always the industry people love to hate. That’s a shame. There’s probably some self-inflicted wounds, both personally, the company, the industry. Part of it we’re on the unpopular side: we have to send the bill on behalf of everybody’s great work.” He talked about encouraging the use of social media on the customer service side when a staffer (Frank Eliason) started getting results by communicating via Twitter as @ComcastCares: “Instantly, it changed the perception by a lot of customers.” (A sample of what Eliason and his team deal with.)

—On retrans: If the deal goes through, Roberts will be on both sides of retrans fees. “It seems clear that retransmission fees are going to get paid. They’ve been getting paid for a while because of a form of channels like FX or MSNBC or ESPN2 or many other networks that kind of went to the head of the class in exchange for retrans.” As for the retrans deals that have come up lately, Roberts says he’s “thankful” they involved parties other than Comcast.

—On the FCC: Last week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski unveiled his “third way” concept for dealing with the aftermath of the federal court loss to Comcast over net neutrality regulations. Roberts’ take: “I honestly don’t believe the government is trying to turn the clock back.”

Here’s the entire video.