Quintanilla is the writer and creator of Netflix original “Control Z” and now serves as senior director of future original development at NBCUniversal Telemundo.
Average nightly viewership was 15.5 million, NBCUniversal said, the lowest since it won exclusive U.S. media rights 33 years ago.
NBC’s primetime Thursday coverage of the Tokyo Olympics averaged 8.6 million total viewers and a 1.9 demo rating, marking the summer games’ smallest audience yet (per fast nationals) and matching their demo low (set last Saturday). On Fox, an NFL preseason match-up between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 6.2 million viewers and a 1.7 demo rating.
NBCU said that the Olympics are on pace to deliver more minutes in consumption than the average month of Netflix and March Madness combined. Viewers have streamed more than 3 billion minutes of Tokyo Olympics coverage across platforms, the company said.
NBCUniversal Invested Heavily In The Olympics. Is That Why NBC News Has Made It A Major Story?
During their broadcasts on Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS’s Evening News devoted about two minutes each to recounting the latest triumphs and disappointments at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Over on NBC’s Nightly News, however, it was a different story — a much bigger one.
Exclusives
Ratings for NBC’s telecasts of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo are down significantly from 2016 but still among the most-watched TV events of the year.
Peacock will launch a Tokyo Olympics destination on July 15 featuring live coverage of some the games’ biggest events, including gymnastics, track and field and the U.S. men’s basketball team’s pursuit of their fourth straight gold. The NBCUniversal streamer said Wednesday that Peacock will feature new daily live shows, original programming, dedicated Olympics channels, full event replays and curated highlights. All of Peacock’s Tokyo Olympics programming will be available to stream for free with exception of USA Men’s Basketball live coverage that will be available to Peacock Premium subscribers.
The Miami-set Armas de Mujer, which translates in English as Women’s Weapons, also is a switch for its stars, including Kate del Castillo of La Reina del Sur drama series fame (above).
NBCUniversal is introducing PayPal as its transactional partner for ecommerce on One Platform, its ad-buying model for reaching and measuring unduplicated audiences across all of its linear and OTT properties, introduced this past January. Last month, NBCU debuted ecommerce initiative One Platform Commerce with Shop Telemundo, said to reach 91% of U.S. adult Hispanics. Now, it’s rolling out ecommerce across the full One Platform.
A TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar will gather senior executives of the spot TV marketplace to consider how the growing use of attribution platforms is affecting the buying and selling of local TV advertising campaigns. Set for Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. ET, the webinar will feature (clockwise from left: Adam Monaco, SVP Disney Advertising Sales Local; Tracy Chavez, EVP and director of investment operations at Publicis; Shawn Makhijani, SVP NBC Spot On and SVP business development and strategy at NBCU Owned Stations; Janet Stilson, contributing editor, TVNewsCheck, moderator; and Chaitanya Upadhyay, VP local solutions at Alphonso. Register to attend the webinar here.
On Friday, Roku and NBCUniversal reached a deal bringing Peacock, NBCU’s recently launched streaming service, to Roku, while also keeping a number of other NBC apps on the platform.
NBCUniversal has launched an investigation into Ron Meyer’s behavior over his affair with actress Charlotte Kirk, to see if the now former vice chairman improperly used company money or resources with either the affair or its cover-up. Meyer abruptly stepped down last week after he disclosed to NBCU CEO Jeff Shell his relationship with Kirk, ending his celebrated tenure in the industry in embarrassment. An NBCU spokesperson confirmed the company has hired an outside investigator.
From being name-checked in the show to inserting Easter eggs for marketers.
Linda Yaccarino, the chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, is calling for “radical transformation” of the marketing business in the face of cultural change around racism and the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. The call comes a week after the Association of National Advertisers made proposals to transform the advertising business, including the timing of the upfront.
The Comcast-backed company on Monday reiterated its interest in having advertisers give consideration to a series of new initiatives it has unveiled in recent months that call for buying ads across different video venues and reducing the number of commercials that appear within any individual piece of content. “We are changing our business so we can make your business stronger,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and partnerships for NBCUniversal, during a streaming-video presentation held for media buyers, analysts and press.
NBCUniversal began discussions this week over coronavirus-induced cost-cutting measures that could result in significant layoffs, according to insiders. NBCU CEO Jeff Shell alluded to the prospect on Comcast’s Thursday earnings call. “Over the next weeks and months, we’ll make pretty significant adjustments… across our business,” he said.
The coronavirus crisis has postponed the 2020 Olympic Games, a key TV event for NBCUniversal.
TVN’s New Facilities Insider | NBCU Takes The IP Plunge In Boston
The massive NBCUniversal Boston Media Center in Needham, Mass., houses the company’s NBC and Telemundo stations plus regional cable news and sports networks in a new $125 million, 160,000-square foot headquarters. “It’s a complete game-changer,” says one GM of the greenfield build.
Entercom, NBC Sign Philly Content Deal
KYW-AM and WCAU-WWSI join forces to create what the companies call the region’s “largest and most experienced broadcast news and weather team.”
Four years after it launches, first to some Comcast subscribers in April and then nationally by July, the service will be bringing in $2.5 billion in revenue and breaking even. There will be 30 million to 35 million “active users” by that point, the company said.
Eight months before the start of the Toyko Summer Olympics, NBCUniversal says it has pulled more than $1 billion in national TV ad revenues — a double-digit percentage gain vs. the same time period prior to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Dan Lovinger, executive vp of ad sales, NBC Sports Group, says about half of the Toyko Olympic advertisers are new marketers.
As EVP of ad platforms and operations, Ryan McConville will lead a team dedicated to cross-portfolio advertising technology and platform solutions to improve the commercial experience and drive impact for brands.
Could sales automation boost local TV against digital giants?
Sales leaders from a half dozen major TV station groups gathered to talk about the challenges they face competing with an increasingly powerful array of digital giants. Key to their strategy is moving to impressions-based selling and creating an automated pipeline connecting media buyers and TV sales reps and cutting down on the busy work that drives up the costs of transactions. Pictured: Frank Comerford, chief revenue officer, and president, commercial operations, NBCU Owned Television Stations.
Less than a week before Comcast and Department of Justice lawyers will face off against Byron Allen in the Supreme Court in the Entertainment Studios boss’ $20 billion discrimination lawsuit against the NBCUniverisal owner, Rep. Bobby Rush now wants the telecommunications giant brought down to size.
“There is no additional investigation being launched,” a spokesperson says. “We are very confident in the report that was conducted.”
U.S. Olympics rightsholder NBCUniversal has reach as agreement with Twitter by which the social media giant will show limited live event coverage of the Tokyo games next year along with highlights and a daily show. While the overwhelming majority of the thousands of hours of Olympic coverage will remain on NBC’s TV and digital streaming platforms, the deal is the furthest the company has gone in letting some live video leave its ecosystem.
Speaking on parent Comcast’s earnings call, NBCU CEO Steve Burke said the company finished upfront selling across all its broadcast and cable nets with volume up 10% to $7 billion and price increases of 9%. Prices for spots in NBC primetime shows like This is Us were up 14%. Cable network also saw double-digit pricing growth, he said.
Aside from the April timeline and the number of staffers “hard at work” on the initiative (500), NBCU CEO Steve Burke didn’t offer other details this morning during analyst call on parent Comcast’s earnings. “We believe we’ve got some ideas that we think are innovative,” he said, citing “for competitive reasons” for his lack of specifics. NBCU’s ad-supported streaming service will hit the market just after Disney and Apple roll out theirs. WarnerMedia is also targeting next spring for its entry into the crowded field.
Growth in high-speed broadband customers (plus 209,000) 0ffset losses in cable TV subscribers (minus 224,000) and contributed to a spike in profits (69 cents to 78 cents per share), the company reported this morning. Revenue came in at $26.9 billion. Revenue at the NBCUniversal unit, which includes NBC and cable programming, totaled $8.2 billion, flat from a year ago.
Dan Lovinger, EVP at the NBC Sports Group, said sales for the Tokyo game are pacing “significantly ahead” of those for the Rio games in 2016. “In a world where media fragmentation is common, there are very few places to go for massive scale, reach and message memorability,” he said.
The NBC cult favorite will leave Netflix when its current deal with the streamer expires at the end of 2020. NBCUniversal’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer platform will then be the exclusive streaming home for all nine seasons of the comedy starting in 2021.
On Wednesday, a songwriting team filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against singer Carrie Underwood, the NFL and NBC, saying they stole a song and used it to introduce Sunday Night Football during the 2018-19 season.
NBCUniversal’s Telemundo station and cable networks have been blacked out to Liberty Cablevision’s Puerto Rico subscribers in a carriage fee dispute. The agreement was set to expire at the end of 2019, but the pact included an opt-out clause, effective March 31. A deal appeared to be close, but fell through, NBCU said.
NBCUniversal has begun warning viewers in Puerto Rico that subscribers of Liberty Cablevision might lose access to the local Telemundo station and NBC’s cable networks at 6 p.m. ET Thursday.
