AllThingsD » NBC U

NBC Digital Exec JB Perrette Leaves

Peter Kafka — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:39:12 +0000

Comcast is still shuffling executives in the wake of its NBCUniversal merger. The latest is Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, who at one point headed up digital distribution for NBC and was bumped up to a larger distribution role in 2009. Perrette was also one of NBC’s reps on Hulu’s board of directors, back before it gave them up as a merger concession. Deadline.com first reported on Perrette’s departure. An NBCU statement praised Perrette and wished him well.

Want to Cut Your Cord? The NBC U-Comcast Deal Won't Make It Easier

Peter Kafka — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:47:42 +0000

If you were hoping that the government restrictions on the NBC U-Comcast deal would make it easier for you to stop paying for cable, you’re out of luck.

At a very first glance, some of the new rules imposed by the feds might seem like they require the new company to offer up programming to any online player that wants to pay up.

And technically, they do. But the new rules have plenty of conditions and limits. So the bottom line is you’re not much more likely to get access to “30 Rock” via YouTube, or CNBC via iTunes, then you were before.

The new FCC and DOJ rules do give, say, Google the ability to buy access to some of NBC U shows or channels. But it would require Comcast’s competitors to do the same thing, first.

That is: Unless the people who are reluctant to put their stuff online because they don’t want to upset Comcast go ahead and put their stuff online, Comcast doesn’t have to, either. So it’s theoretically possible, but not probable.

And if it happens, it will happen haltingly. If Viacom sells someone online access to its MTV lineup of reality shows, that might require Comcast to offer up its reality show lineup on Bravo. But it wouldn’t entitle an online outlet to the police procedurals on USA.

The government also gives the option to, say, Netflix, to set up shop as another cable operator, and buy access to all of NBC Universal’s programming. But it would have to buy all of it–just like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision do when they make a carriage deal for NBC U’s shows.

And again, Comcast wouldn’t have to do that unless its peers did. Which means that if Netflix really wanted to set up shop as a direct competitor of the cable guys, it can do so. But it would have to operate exactly like the cable guys, just like the satellite guys did when they entered the market a couple of decades ago.

So if Netflix, or Apple or whoever really wants to offer a full suite of cable programming, at cable prices, it could. But that would be very, very expensive: Analyst Rich Greenfield estimates that the bill for NBC U’s programming alone would run a new entrant $1 billion a year.

Just as, or even more, important, is that those kind of bundled, take-it-or-leave-it deals are exactly the kind of thing that the cord-cutting crowd complains about.

They don’t want to have to pay for USA and Bravo and Syfy and MSNBC–they want to pick and choose channels, or shows. And pay a lot less.

“I don’t think cord-cutting was a major focus” of negotiations, Comcast EVP David Cohen said during a press conference this afternoon. And that may be true!

But the net result reads very much as if Comcast wanted to make sure the government didn’t force it to break its business model. And if that was the case, it got what it wanted.

Comcast Won't Get NBC U in Time for Christmas, or New Year's Either

Peter Kafka — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:14:08 +0000

Comcast won’t be able to wrap its deal with GE for NBC Universal this month, both companies announced today. Instead, they’re shooting for a January close, when they hope to get final approval from Washington. Given that this one stretches back to the fall of 2009, it’s hard to argue that a few weeks of extra legal bills will matter that much.

Exclusive: Comcast's Top Digital Exec Amy Banse to Open New Silicon Valley Equity Fund for Cable Giant and NBC

Kara Swisher — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:09:04 +0000

Amy Banse, currently the president of Comcast Interactive Media, is shifting into a job as head of a new Silicon Valley-based equity fund aimed at making digital investments for the television cable giant, as well as its new NBC Universal unit, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.

While most of the attention related to the soon-to-be-completed merger of Comcast with NBC U has been on the musical chairs of its high-profile news and entertainment divisions, this move is potentially significant for the companies by putting a stake in the ground–and a presence–for it on the West Coast.

As part of the shift, sources said, Banse will be charged with combining two existing corporate investment funds: NBC U’s Peacock Equity and Comcast Interactive Capital.

The New York-based Peacock Equity is a $250 million fund that was founded as a joint venture in 2007 by GE Capital and NBC U.

Its investments have ranged from $3 million to $25 million each, including a lot of online advertising start-ups such as Adify and the Rubicon Project.

Comcast Interactive Capital–founded in 1999 and based in Philadelphia, where Comcast’s HQ is–has $500 million under management.

It has focused on broadband, interactive and enterprise businesses.

According to its Web site, “early successful investments” include About.com, CitySearch, Half.com, TiVo, and VeriSign.”

Current investments include SB Nation, BlackArrow and JiWire.

It is not clear how much more money the new still-unnamed equity fund will raise, but it will be aimed at early-stage companies, said sources.

The combined fund will debut by the end of the year or early next year.

Banse’s shift to become a VC comes after many years of leading Comcast’s online strategy, which has included the acquisition of the Fandango movie ticketing site and Daily Candy, an email newsletter.

She has also been in charge of the development and management of Comcast’s many Web sites, including Comcast.net, Xfinity.com and Fancast.

MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka recently reported that the high-profile Banse was moving out of her post, which was being split up into two jobs.

Many thought she would likely depart the company, but it appears she will stay for a while longer at least.

As it happens, Banse will be in San Francisco this week for the Web 2.0 conference, so please be sure to give her a warm welcome and explain “Fear the Beard” to a likely Phillies fan-atic.

And just to get acquainted in advance, here is her bio from the Comcast Web site:

Amy Banse serves as President of Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a division of Comcast Corporation that is responsible for developing and operating online tools and businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication.

Since founding CIM in December of 2005, Ms. Banse has led Comcast’s online strategy, overseeing the acquisition of Fandango (the movie ticketing site), Daily Candy (the popular email newsletter), Plaxo (the smart contacts site), and thePlatform (the industry-leading provider of digital media publishing solutions) as well as the in-house development and management of, Comcast.net and xFinity.com(Comcast’s portals), Fancast, (a leading tv entertainment site), xFinitytv (Comcast ‘s online video portal), and Swirl (Daily Candy’s sample sales site). In this role, she has grown CIM into an 800 person team with significant digital capabilities and has played a key part in the industry’s development of its TV Everywhere strategy and in Comcast’s execution of that strategy, Fancast/xFinitytv.

Ms. Banse joined Comcast in 1991 as an in-house attorney responsible for programming acquisition. Most recently she served as Executive Vice President of Content Development where she oversaw the development of Comcast’s cable network portfolio including the company’s investments in E! Entertainment Television, The Golf Channel, and VERSUS and the development and launch of G4, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One and Comcast’s sports networks.

Ms. Banse has represented CIM and Comcast as a featured speaker in venues around the country discussing the rapid evolution of content consumption in a digital world and the opportunities and challenges facing the cable and entertainment industries. She has been named among the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” and the “Top Programmers to Watch” by CableWorld magazine. She has also been named among the Cable 100 by Multichannel News and the Digital Power list, by The Hollywood Reporter. She was honored as a “Wonder Woman” by Multichannel News and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) in 2004, received WICT’s Geraldine B. Laybourne Fearless Award in 2009 and ProMax’s Brand Builder Award in 2010 Ms. Banse sits on the Board of The Morris Arboretum and Springside School for Girls. In 2007 she received “The Distinguished Alumni Award” from Springside School, and in 2006 she was honored by Girls, Inc. as an outstanding role model for girls during their annual Celebration Luncheon. Ms. Banse is also a member of The Forum of Executive Women, the Philadelphia region’s premier women’s organization.

Ms. Banse received a BA from Harvard University and a JD from Temple University Law School. She and her husband and their four children live in Philadelphia.

Meet the New Boss: What's on Steve Burke's Mind as He Takes Over NBC U?

Peter Kafka — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:55:10 +0000

No surprise that Comcast COO Steve Burke would be taking the reins at NBC Universal after the cable company swallowed it up–even though Comcast insisted that wouldn’t be the case. “Jeff Zucker is going to be CEO of the entity,” Burke told BoomTown’s Kara Swisher in June in an onstage interview at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference.

But now Jeff Zucker is officially out and Burke is officially in, and Comcast (CMCSA) would like us to stop talking about any other comings and goings for a while: “Comcast and GE also said that there will be no additional structural or personnel announcements until the deal closing process and timing is certain,” Comcast insists, via a press release.

But there’s certainly going to be lots of chatter about which NBC U executives stick around in the new, post-GE (GE) regime, and which Comcast officials Burke brings with him, and who he imports from the outside. Stay tuned!

And until then, here’s a look at the Burke, via his sitdown with Swisher at the D8 conference (his insistence that Zucker is staying comes around the 8:50 mark, by the way):

[ See post to watch video ]

Netflix Adds "Saturday Night Live," "Battlestar Galactica," More NBC U Shows to Web Service

Peter Kafka — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:02:00 +0000

This could make a Web-only offering from Netflix that much more appealing: The movie service has signed an expanded rights deal with GE’s NBC Universal (GE) unit. The deal gives Netflix (NFLX) Web access to a long list of NBC U shows, from broadcast–every episode of “Saturday Night Live”–to cable–like Syfy’s awesome “Battlestar Galactica.”

The cable shows are particularly noteworthy, since those programs are generally not available on Netflix rival Hulu–which is co-owned by NBC, along with Disney’s (DIS) ABC and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox.

In fact, while Netflix makes a point of not advertising access to any particular show or movie on its service, it does consistently well with cable programming, at least compared with Hulu. For instance: Episodes of “Dexter,” from CBS’s Showtime pay channel, do particularly well on Netflix–but CBS has no Hulu deal at all.

And it’s also worth noting that, going forward, all new episodes of “Saturday Night Live”–one of Hulu’s best assets–will be available the day after they air. Just like they are on Hulu.

Exclusive: Comcast Reshuffles Its Digital Deck Before NBC Comes Aboard

Peter Kafka — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:32:34 +0000

Comcast hasn’t finished acquiring NBC Universal. But it is already moving around some of its digital leadership ahead of the deal’s close.

Sources familiar with the company say that current digital head Amy Banse is moving out of her post, which is being split up into two jobs. One of them has already gone to her former lieutenant Matt Strauss, who will head up the properties directly connected to Comcast’s core cable business, most notably its Fancast/Xfinity TV portal. The other job will be overseeing NBC U’s digital businesses–everything from NBC.com to iVillage to its stake in Hulu–as well as Comcast properties like Daily Candy and Fandango.

Banse might have been an obvious candidate for that gig, but it’s not panning out that way. Instead, she will continue to run Comcast’s sites until Washington signs off on the pending deal between Comcast and NBC U’s owner GE (GE).

Then she’s supposed to end up in a new, yet-to-be determined role at the cable giant. She’s a lawyer who has held multiple positions at Comcast since joining in 1991, so in theory she could end up in a variety of places within the company. Comcast (CMCSA) declined to comment.

Also left unresolved: Who will run the NBC U digital/Comcast portfolio once the two companies merge? NBC U doesn’t have a single digital czar but instead has a cadre of people with digital duties. It’s unclear whether Comcast will want to keep that structure or put in a single person to run the whole thing.

NBC U's Okay Quarter Just Fine for GE

Peter Kafka — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:12:01 +0000

GE doesn’t really care much about NBC Universal, which is why it’s happy to hand it off to Comcast (CMCSA) once regulators sign off. But for the record, the cable/broadcast/movie conglomerate posted an okay quarter: Revenues were up five percent and operating profit was up 13 percent, the company said this morning.

Bear in mind that a year ago, those numbers were down eight percent and 41 percent, respectively. So Jeff Zucker and company are still digging out of a hole. But whatever: Sometime, in the next 12 months or so, this will be come Brian Roberts’ and Steve Burke’s problem.

For the record, here’s how GE (GE) describes the unit’s performance to investors (click image to enlarge). As usual, NBC U’s real star is its cable business, though GE said the NBC broadcast unit had a strong upfront sales cycle, up 18 percent:

QOTD

John Paczkowski — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:10:55 +0000

We’ve never told anyone they can’t lower prices. We’re glad to have NBC back and they are participating under the same terms with all of the other content providers.”

– Apple VP Eddy Cue says that NBC Universal’s iron will ended up being quite a bit more flexible than the flexible iTunes pricing scheme it claims to have won from Apple

NBC's iTunes Pricing Flexible, Just Like Jeff Zucker's Memory

John Paczkowski — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:05:53 +0000

I got into a pretty public fight with Steve Jobs about our TV. We were the market share leader at iTunes, we had 35 percent of the market share at the iTunes store. What we said to Steve and his team was that we wanted there to be some variable pricing. There’s no example in the world of where the retailer sets the price–there’s no example, except at Apple. We’re very conscious of what happened in the music industry. … We offered do a test with one show, you pick the show, I don’t care, and charge $2.99 for that and everything else at $1.99, and in fact we’ll give you the whole library at $0.99, and they didn’t want to do it. Granted none of it is as mobile and successful as iTunes. … We agreed to put up our film stuff on Apple just a few weeks ago and the reason we did that is variable pricing.”

–NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker, Feb. 27, 2008

Apple today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes Store. The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99.”

–Apple Press Release, Aug. 31, 2007

We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple. We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.”

–Zucker, Jan. 20, 2008

Apple has destroyed the music business–in terms of pricing–and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side.”

–Zucker, Oct. 28, 2007

Nearly a year after being eighty-sixed from Apple’s iTunes store over a pricing dispute, NBC Universal is returning to the service, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Tuesday. Beginning immediately, NBCU programs in standard definition will be available from iTunes at a price of $1.99 per episode, programs in high definition for $2.99 per episode. Catalog titles will be sold for 99 cents.

It’s not entirely clear what led to the warming of relations between the two companies, though NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said the new cooperation was due to a concession from Apple (AAPL). “What happened a year ago is we got into a dispute over pricing and thought there should be flexible pricing on the television content in the iTunes store,” he told CNBC. “They didn’t want to, we withdrew our content. The fact is, we have flexible pricing, and the programs will be on there at the 99 cents price point, $1.99 price point, and for HD episodes of the program, that will cost $2.99. So basically we were able to achieve our goal that not all contents should be of the same value. When we achieved that, we were happy to be on iTunes.”

That’s certainly an interesting re-imagining of NBCU’s recent negotiations with Apple. But it’s not entirely accurate. Because while Apple did agree to flexible pricing for NBCU (GE) programs on iTunes, it didn’t really agree to the flexible-pricing scheme the network was seeking. NBCU wanted flexible pricing based on popularity. What it got is flexible pricing based on video definition, which Apple had already agreed to with other networks. NBCU wanted complete price variance. It didn’t get it. The company also wanted Apple to double the wholesale price it pays for each TV episode sold on iTunes. And it clearly didn’t get that either, because if it had, “The Office” would be priced at $4.99 per episode instead of its current $1.99./$2.99–according to Apple, anyway.

So sure, NBCU got flexible pricing. But it got it on Apple’s terms, which presumably started looking quite a bit more attractive when the network’s other online video distribution deals didn’t prove to be as successful as it had hoped.

NBC's iTunes Pricing Flexible, Just Like Jeff Zucker's Memory

John Paczkowski — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:05:53 +0000

I got into a pretty public fight with Steve Jobs about our TV. We were the market share leader at iTunes, we had 35 percent of the market share at the iTunes store. What we said to Steve and his team was that we wanted there to be some variable pricing. There’s no example in the world of where the retailer sets the price–there’s no example, except at Apple. We’re very conscious of what happened in the music industry. … We offered do a test with one show, you pick the show, I don’t care, and charge $2.99 for that and everything else at $1.99, and in fact we’ll give you the whole library at $0.99, and they didn’t want to do it. Granted none of it is as mobile and successful as iTunes. … We agreed to put up our film stuff on Apple just a few weeks ago and the reason we did that is variable pricing.”

–NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker, Feb. 27, 2008

Apple today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes Store. The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99.”

–Apple Press Release, Aug. 31, 2007

We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple. We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.”

–Zucker, Jan. 20, 2008

Apple has destroyed the music business–in terms of pricing–and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side.”

–Zucker, Oct. 28, 2007