NBCU

The increase to $1.7 billion was driven by a 13% increase in advertising revenue, primarily reflecting higher primetime ratings at the NBC broadcast network, and higher retransmission consent fees.

The Peacock is making a play for more ad dollars from movie studios. Starting Monday, NBCUniversal will promote the new Summit Entertainment movie, RED2 on its USA, SyFy and E! cable networks with 60-second video vignettes that are tailored for each network’s specific audience and that will prod viewers to buy tickets to the movie using NBCU-owned tickets service Fandango.com.

The avalanche of lawsuits on the internship front keeps coming. The latest is a proposed class action against NBCUniversal from Jesse Moore, who says he worked 24-hour-or-more weeks in the booking department at MSNBC in 2011, and Monet Eliastam, who says she worked 25-hour-or-more weeks on the staff of Saturday Night Live in 2012.

NBCUniversal head of ad sales Linda Yaccarino’s success this upfront is critical to NBCU parent Comcast, which needs her to move approximately $9 billion worth of broadcast and cable ad inventory. Adding to the pressure, her boss, NBCU CEO Steve Burke, has told Wall Street in recent months that he believes NBCU’s outlets should be commanding higher CPMs.

An 18.5% drop in the company’s Broadcast Television segment revenue was driven by lower primetime ratings at the NBC broadcast network and lower content licensing revenue.

NBCUniversal has named Brian Schwagerl senior vice president facilities operations, planning and services. He will be based in New York and report to Ian Trombley, EVP, NBCUniversal East Coast Television & […]

NBCUniversal on Friday today announced that Tina Silvestri has been named senior vice president, business services, operations and technical services. A 16-year NBCUniversal veteran, Silvestri joins the department from the […]

Looking to marshal a slew of assets to back its 2014 Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal will run a 60-second spot today simultaneously on nearly 19 broadcast and cable networks at 8 p.m. The promo will also air on 33 other non-NBCU channels in markets served by parent Comcast.

The agreement covers retransmission consent for NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations and also includes Oxygen, Style, Telemundo and USA among others networks across multiple platforms in and out of home as well as rights to Olympic Games.

The agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative covers first-ever retransmission consent for NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations and also includes Oxygen, Style, Telemundo and USA among others networks across multiple platforms in and out of home.

He will lead NBCUniversal’s information technology organization, overseeing global technology applications, infrastructure and operations for the company’s worldwide media portfolio.

The new multi-year agreement covers retransmission consent for NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations and provides sports, news and entertainment channels to Mediacom customers across multiple platforms in and out of home.

The marketing veteran is promoted from marketing SVP at iVillage to SVP of NBCUniversal’s Integrated Media group.

It gives additional duties to Scott Schiller, Barry Fischer, Earl Marshall and Mike Mayer. Plus, John Shea will lead strategy, innovation and creative for cross-portfolio ad deals.

The move, which will look to court metrosexual viewers that History and Spike ignore, will include programming focused on gaming and lifestyle.

Bernstein Research raised its earnings-per-share forecast for the cable giant this morning after analysts Craig Moffett and Todd Juenger concluded that NBCUniversal “has gone from albatross to a key part of the bull case” for Comcast — and could generate an additional $1.5 billion in annual cash flow by 2016.

The new 21st Century Solutions grant program rewards innovation at 30 nonprofits in all the markets in which NBC owns stations.

NBCUniversal continues to sign sprawling carriage deals with distributors that include fees for TV stations it owns, helping it cement a new revenue stream. A rights agreement with Verizon gives the telco TV operator rights to NBC-owned stations in markets it serves with FiOS.

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is wrapping up a new distribution deal with satellite broadcaster DirecTV, people close to the talks said. For NBCUniversal, parent of broadcast networks NBC and Telemundo as well as cable channels CNBC, Bravo, USA and MSNBC, among others, the agreement is the latest in a slew of new distribution contracts with the nation’s largest pay-TV providers.

The multi-year agreement covers retransmission consent for NBC and Telemundo owned TV stations and continued carriage of NBCU cable networks.

With Linda Yaccarino now settled in at her new position as president of ad sales, NBCUniversal has set in motion a wholesale shuffle of executive positions under her watch.

She will head communications for the NBCUniversal Entertainment/Digital Networks and Integrated Media division as senior vice president, communications.

The new multi-year agreement covers retransmission consent for NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations and provides sports, news and entertainment to Cablevision customers across multiple platforms in and out of home.

NBC’s Friday hour-long telethon resulted in nearly $23 million in donations to the American Red Cross.

Scheduled performances on the Friday, Nov. 2, primetime Red Cross benefit include Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting. Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams also will appear and Matt Lauer will host.

As the new president of NBCUniversal TV Networks Distribution, former Cablevision exec E. McRae “Mac” Budill will oversee the company’s network portfolio including the sales, distribution marketing and communications for NBCUniversal’s broadcast and cable nets.

NBCUniversal is getting ready to turn the clock back with Cozi TV, a new digital subchannel filled with “retro reruns” and old movies. Nothing is official yet, but it’s slotted to debut Jan. 1 in all 10 markets with NBC-owned stations.

Bridget Baker, one of NBCUniversal’s longest serving and most colorful executives, is leaving the company at the end of November after 24 years. Baker, who was president of TV Networks distribution, became the face of NBCU to most cable and satellite TV operators.

NBCUniversal’s top researcher Alan Wurtzel said there was considerable worry that making all Olympic events available live online this summer would cannibalize primetime TV viewing, but ample evidence emerged indicating the streaming was an add-on.

Linda Yaccarino is promoted from president, cable entertainment and digital advertising sales and now oversees all ad sales and market strategy for the company’s broadcast, cable and digital properties.

Jim Bell, the executive producer who spearheaded NBC’s London Olympics coverage and shouldered most of the criticism directed at the network, is poised for a promotion to a larger role within NBC’s news or sports division, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

Through Saturday night, NBC was averaging 31.1 million total viewers from 9 p.m. to 11:25 p.m., according to Nielsen, up 12% over the first 16 nights of the Beijing Games, which averaged 27.7 million. London remained on pace for the second-best viewership since the 1976 Games and the best viewership for a non-U.S. hosted event in 36 years.

Chyron provided 10 HyperX³·¹ on-air graphics playout systems to NBC Olympics during its production of the 2012 London Olympic Games. “In our operation, there’s no room for error, and every […]

NBC is linking up with Storify, the social-media “story creator”, to put streams of real-time Olympic content, curated by NBC journalists, across Today.com as well as NBC’s 10 owned TV station websites.

NBC Universal today said its ad-dollar take for the Olympics has reached $1 billion, about $150 million more than its total take for the 2008 Beijing Games. The media company said it has secured about $50 million in advertising orders since stating a few weeks ago that its Olympics sales had reached around $950 million.