Steve Harvey, TV personality and multi-hyphenate entertainer/entrepreneur, admitted that he was surprised when NBC announced that a new show hosted by Kelly Clarkson would take over his timeslot on its owned-and-operated stations.
NBCU plans in early 2019 to unveil a new offering that places commercials in reruns, movies and syndicated programs containing segments that align with the mission or topic of the ads. The technology represents the latest attempt by NBCU to wring more dollars from certain kinds of TV advertising inventory previously seen as less desirable by Madison Avenue.
Linda Yaccarino, chairman of NBCUniversal Ad Sales and Client Partnerships, says she plans to further cut back on the commercial loads on the company’s TV networks and will air its new short, one-minute Prime Pods in more shows this year.
The idea behind WatchBack is for the media giant to learn about consumption habits, data that is often not available to NBC when someone watches a show on linear television.
Target has signed on as a launch partner for NBCUniversal’s self-serve programmatic linear TV offering. The deal, which the companies say is the first of its kind, will give Target access to NBCU’s entire linear TV inventory for audience targeting by the retail store chain.
Exclusives
It’s only 287 days until the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, but nearly 100 of the U.S. team’s top athletes have assembled this week at a Los Angeles production facility. Welcome to “WeHo,” the conglomerate’s hush-hush weeklong event that brought together 96 top athletes — 10 months before the 2018 Winter Games.
Comcast is developing an online video service offering hit shows from its NBCUniversal TV networks in the next 12 to 18 months, an effort to compete with rivals Netflix and CBS, according to people familiar with the matter. The new service will include programs from the NBC broadcast network, and could include shows from Comcast cable channels Bravo, SyFy and USA.
Ahead of this year’s upfront marketplace for ad time in the next TV season, NBCUniversal is expanding the amount of inventory it would sell based on data other than traditional Nielsen demographics guarantees, more than doubling the business it conducted that way last year.
Streaming video services such as DirecTV Now may have “scary implications” for some programmers, who could see some channels left behind, and operators, who might lose subscribers. But they shouldn’t take a big bite out of Comcast, says CEO Brian Roberts. “Our view was that scale matters,” he says. “When we just owned E! and Golf Channel and Comcast SportsNet, it wasn’t enough. Now we have MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Syfy, Bravo — that’s a hell of a footprint.”
Programming will go uninterrupted for NBCUniversal programming, including Telemundo, Bravo, E!, Syfy, USA, MSNBC, CNBC and Oxygen.
At 3 a.m. on Sunday, NBC will flip the switch on WBTS, “NBC Boston,” its newest O&O that will broadcast via a patchwork quilt of signals from three stations serving the nation’s ninth-largest TV market. NBC has been planning to shift the affiliation in Boston from its 22-year incumbent, Sunbeam Television-owned WHDH, to the new station for the past year.
NBC Universal has sent a letter to Nielsen expressing concern over its Total Content Ratings product and asking the media measurement giant to delay its introduction. In a letter obtained by Ad Age, Linda Yaccarino, chairman-advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCU, said that the Total Content Ratings product in its current form “lacks the consistency and transparency the marketplace demands and expects from Nielsen” and is not ready to be released.
On Thursday, Ron Lamprecht, NBCU EVP of business development and digital distribution, detailed NBC’s recent efforts around digital, including work with Snapchat and investments in BuzzFeed and Vox. In particular, Lamprecht discussed Snapchat and how, while monetization on the platform remains a challenge, NBC is benefiting from its work with the ephemeral social media service so far.
The NBCU-Verizon livestream on YouTube, to be hosted by Marlon Wayans and Olivia Culpo, will offer a 360 view of the iconic New York Turkey Day event.
Earlier reports that NBCUniversal had invested a second $200 million in BuzzFeed after an initial $200 million investment are true, NBCU confirmed today. With the new funding, the companies will extend their ad sales relationship and collaborate on the branded content front,.
NBCUniversal has struck a deal to start selling advertising across Apple News in 2017 as Apple steps off sales itself and tries to find a footing for the app. Individual publishers can still sell ads that run alongside their own content, and NBCU won’t get access to any Apple data through the deal.
A year after making a major investment in BuzzFeed, NBCUniversal is doing it again. Sources say Comcast’s TV and movie arm is finalizing a deal that will put around $200 million into the digital publisher, at a valuation of around $1.7 billion. Those are roughly the same numbers NBCU used last year, when it first invested in BuzzFeed — except that deal gave BuzzFeed a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion.
Google’s planned Unplugged live streaming service appears to be homing in on carriage deals with all of the major broadcast network owners following the agreement with CBS that surfaced yesterday. That includes Comcast’s NBCUniversal which is in advanced conversations to include NBC, Telemundo and many if not all of its cable networks on the Google service, according to sources.
Mark Marshall will succeed Lovinger atop ad sales for entertainment networks.
It appears that NBC Boston (with the still unconfirmed call letters of WBTS) may reach the market’s viewers through Telemundo affil WNEU after the station group buys low-power WTMU.
All eight Harry Potter films plus the upcoming Fantastic Beasts releases to go to NBCUniversal in an expansive multi-network partnership with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution that also incorporates theme park events.
NBC Taps 2C Creative For Olympics Promo
Sling TV said it’s taking its multi-stream service out of beta, and will add NBCUniversal channels, including NBC owned and operated stations, to the base $25-a-month package.
After having his suit against NBC over loss of NBC affiliation dismissed last month by a federal appeals court judge, WHDH Boston owner Ed Ansin on Wednesday announced: “We filed a notice of appeal with the federal court. We believe the judge got it all wrong, so we are reviewing our options for an appeal.”
Judge Throws Out WHDH Suit Against NBC
WHDH Boston’s bid to hang onto its NBC affiliation was tossed out of court by a federal judge who said the station fell victim to “doing business in a competitive and unsentimental marketplace.” The suit, which argued that Comcast violated federal and state law when it decided to drop the Sunbeam Television-owned station, lasted less than four months.
NBCU Jabs At Digital And Nielsen
NBCUniversal took shots at digital media and, only a little more subtly, at Nielsen in an uprfront presentation to promote all of its cable and digital properites in addition to the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks.
WHDH, Comcast Affiliation Spar In Court
WHDH Boston and NBC wrangled in court with conflicting versions of whether the station has a right to keep carrying the network, as NBC’s parent company seeks to set up a new Boston-area Peacock affiliate.
NBCU will share video of the Summer Games from Rio on social media for the first time in an effort to connect with those all-important millennials.
Comcast wants a federal court to throw out WHDH Boston’s lawsuit against the cable giant over its refusal to extend the station’s NBC affiliation, arguing that WHDH signed a contract that expires in January and must live by its terms. WHDH filed the lawsuit in March, claiming the move violated antitrust law and Comcast’s agreement with affiliates.
Estrella TV, the third-ranked Spanish language TV network behind Univision and Telemundo, says cable giant Comcast is discriminating against the network to benefit its own Spanish language networks, Telemundo and NBC Universo. Estrella’s owner, Liberman Broadcasting, has filed a complaint with the FCC against Comcast charging violations of the FCC’s Program Carriage regulations, as well as of the merger conditions imposed on Comcast when it acquired NBCUniversal.
A day after NBCUniversal warned Dish Network subscribers that its cable and broadcast channels might go dark on the service this weekend, the satcaster has hit back. Dish today filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against NBCU, claiming that the company violated the terms of their 2013 retrans deal. It seeks arbitration to halt the potential blackout.
NBCUniversal on Monday warned Dish Network viewers that the NBC and Telemundo stations the programmer owns in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Miami and its cable nets including USA, Syfy, Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC might go dark Sunday if the companies don’t agree on a new carriage deal.
The companies are creating a three-hour Saturday morning programming block aimed at 13-16-year-olds that will showcase in-depth and inspiring stories.
