Media giants Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal will make the case for their merger before Congress on Thursday with hearings scheduled by both the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet and the Senate antitrust subcommittee.

Also testifying will be opponents of the $30-billion deal, including consumer activists and media watchdogs. Brian Roberts and Jeff Zucker, chief executives of Comcast and NBC Universal, respectively, will probably face questions over whether the proposed marriage of the nation’s biggest cable and broadband provider with an entertainment goliath puts too much control over content and distribution in the hands of one corporation.

Some of the biggest concerns over the deal are from NBC’s own affiliated television stations. In advance testimony submitted to the House subcommittee, Michael Fiorile, chairman of NBC’s affiliates board of directors, said stations want strong conditions to protect their interest.

He cited as a hypothetical example an attempt by Comcast to move NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” games to the broadcast network’s cable sports channel, Versus. Such a move, Fiorile wrote, would be “devastating to affiliates.”

• Read the full Los Angeles Times story.