NBCU

NBCUniversal is folding seven local digital news and lifestyle subchannels into a single national channel that will air retro reruns during the day and lifestyle programs in primetime, the network says. The subchannels of NBC affiliates are called NBC Nonstop channels, and the network said in November that it would roll them into one new national channel called Nonstop. But the new plans call for more extensive changes, including adding reruns and a potential name change.

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, which owns 15.8% of A&E, said today that it will sell its stake to Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., its partners in the A&E joint venture.

Dave Mazza, SVP of engineering for NBC Olympics, is kind of busy right now. He’s overseeing the massive technical preparations so everything’s ready for the July 27 opening ceremonies in London. And while he and his team have years of experience covering the games, there’s always new technology to try out. “We always say that we will always use tried-and-true products to do the Olympics as we can’t afford the risk of something new. Then, when I look at the list of new stuff, it’s staggeringly long. We can’t pull off everything we’re trying to do with the tried and true. It’s just the nature of the beast.”

NBCUniversal is in serious negotiations with Microsoft to buy back MSNBC.com. Several sources with first-hand knowledge of the situation say that negotiations between the two companies have progressed to the stage where NBCU parent company Comcast is conducting its due diligence. They said that the partnership could be unwound by this summer.

Bravo will be the home of tennis, CNBC will get boxing and a partnership with Panasonic will make 242 hours of summer games footage available in 3D.

NBCUniversal has launched a $190 million upgrade to its 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters and other New York City facilities. The construction, which is scheduled for completion in mid-2014, will see more than 1.2 million square feet of renovation within 30 Rock. That work includes a full upgrade of the building’s office space and production facilities.

Ryan Seacrest is on the verge of completing a new contract with NBCUniversal, the company that owns the E! channel, where he is a host and a producer; Bravo, where he is a supplier of programming; and NBC, where he will soon appear occasionally on the Today show.

The initiative is part of “NBC News: Hiring Our Heroes” program in conjunction with The Chamber of Commerce that’s designed to help veterans and military spouses find employment.

NBCUniversal is joining other big digital companies in participating in a digital media version of a TV-style “upfront” event — becoming the first traditional media company to do so. For the “Digital Content NewFronts” series of events, NBCUniversal joins AOL, Digitas, Google/YouTube, Hulu, Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo. Plans are set for NBCUniversal to host its presentation May 1 in New York City.

The company partners with Google and comScore to explore new methods of single-source, cross-platform video measurement.

In an effort it hopes will help it plan for the future of video, NBCU has enlisted Google and ComScore to reveal how viewers watch the Olympics across screens including the iPad.

Features and segments from NBCUniversal properties include CNBC, Golf Channel, Bravo, Telemundo, Access Hollywood, Weather Channel, E!, Style, G4, iVillage. The NBC Sports Network will present more than 18 hours of live Super Bowl programming. Today Show segments live from Indianapolis start Friday. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will originate four shows from Indianapolis.

With a fourth-place broadcast network, an underperforming Hollywood studio, a Today show with its star’s contract set to expire in December and pricey TV-rights contracts to exploit at NBC Sports, much is on the line for the NBCUniversal chief starting his second year at the media giant.

The executive, president of West Coast business operations since August 2010, is exiting under “absolutely amicable” terms, according to an NBC spokesman, who said a mutually convenient timetable is being worked out for his departure. He had been at the company since 2000.

NBCU’s new daytime talk show with British host Trisha Goddard is a conflict talker in the mold of NBCU’s Maury. It’s being sold on a cash-plus-barter basis (four national minutes/11 local) for fall 2012.

With the nation talking about tweets and tagging friends and other social-media jargon, NBCUniversal held a conference Wednesday to showcase its social-media prowess. Highlights included the Bravo channel’s “tweet tracker” and CNBC’s 500,000 Twitter followers, which NBCU believes boost its relevance to TV fans and advertisers.

Pro football is among the most dependable ratings-grabbers for broadcast television as networks otherwise leak viewers. NBC and the NFL have recently tried to make the season opener a big event. The Today show, the Weather Channel, Telemundo and E! Entertainment are all reporting live this week from Green Bay, where NBC is televising Thursday’s opening game between the Packers and the New Orleans Saints.

Miranda Technologies Inc., a worldwide provider of production, playout and delivery systems for the television broadcast, cable, satellite and IPTV industries, has been awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract by […]

The multi-year, non-exclusive deal Includes film and television library content new to Netflix.

Few in television have been as focused on the rise of the Hispanic demographic and its implications for the industry as NBCU’s Lauren Zalaznick. NBCU has a broad strategy to integrate Hispanic and non-Hispanic programming into a broader NBCU programming approach. Hispanics are “the only large-scale growing network audience on television,” Zalaznick says. “We all know [the] general-market is shrinking … but Hispanic broadcast is growing.”

Comcast has combined its venture capital arm Comcast Interactive Capital with the Peacock Equity Fund — formerly a venture capital affiliate of NBC Universal and General Electric — establishing a new fund called Comcast Ventures. which will be headed by former Comcast Interactive Media President Amy Banse.

NBCUniversal Television Consumer Products and Walgreens are teaming to introduce an exclusive line of The Biggest Loser branded meal alternative bars and shakes. The products will be offered in all of […]

The company, which bought a controlling interest in NBCUniversal in January, said $200 million will be spent mainly on new NBC shows to fill the 10 p.m. slot where Jay Leno briefly hosted a variety show every weeknight. It was a moneysaving move that was abandoned within months, after local stations complained that low ratings were hurting their 11 p.m. news.

Starting this week, NBC is launching three more 24-hour news multicast channels on WTVJ Miami, KXAS Dallas and its trio of California stations — KNBC Los Angeles, KNTV San Francisco and KNSD San Diego. WTVJ will also add an hour-long newscast at 5 p.m. to replace a half-hour newscast at 7on its main channel. It’s all part of promises that Comcast made to the FCC to win its approval of its takeover of NBCU in January.

Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, president of NBCUniversal Digital & Affiliate Distribution and Content Distribution Strategy, is the latest top NBCU executive from the previous regime to exit after NBCU and Comcast’s TV properties were realigned under CEO Steve Burke following the company’s merger.

Paula Madison, executive vice president and chief diversity officer for NBCUniversal, is retiring on May 20 after more than 35 years in the news media. Madison, 58, is one of few African Americans in the upper reaches of media corporations.

Continuing to find its footing post-Comcast acquisition, NBC Universal on Thursday named Nicholas Lehman as its new president of digital for Entertainment & Digital Networks & Integrated Media.

Brian Roberts says he is hopeful that the NBC network will start making money over time, but emphasizes that NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt has “a very tough job.”

NBC Universal chief Steve Burke said that with regulatory approvals behind it and the joint venture deal officially closed, his initial focus will be to help the cable networks maintain their leadership position in the industry, while improving its broadcast operations may take a little more time.

As part of its commitment to the FCC, NBC’s O&Os are looking to partner with nonprofit news organizations that can provide investigative, community-focused stories. Proponents are hoping that other commercial stations will see the symbiotic benefits of such deals and join the movement. The partnership between NBC’s KNSD San Diego and VoiceOfSanDiego.org could be the model. Says the nonprofit’s CEO Scott Lewis: “They have skills to do video and production that we don’t, but they don’t have the personnel anymore to do analysis and writing. It’s a perfect kind of match.”

As it promised the FCC it would, NBCU found a minority to buy the Los Angeles Spanish-language independent, the Meruelo Group, headed by Alex Meruelo. Bert Ellis and Spanish Broadcasting System were among the runners-up in the bidding.

Driven by its cable networks, NBCU’s profit was $830 million, up from $602 million as revenues rose 12% to $4.8 billion in the quarter. Broadcast revenue was up 11% to $1.8 billion.

NBC has struck a big Olympic sponsorship deal for the 2012 London Summer Olympics Games — one that is looking to regain its sports image, General Motors.

NBC Universal’s Spanish-language television network Telemundo is about to get a jolt as Lauren Zalaznick — the company’s high priestess of marketing who has demonstrated a knack for turning tawdry reality shows into high culture — will be tapped to take over the network. Zalaznick currently shepherds Bravo  as well as the younger-skewing Oxygen channel and website iVillage.

NBCU on Tuesday gave the media a sneak peak at a major presentation it will make on Thursday to its advertisers, their media agencies and Nielsen officials. The presentation will offer data showing that the adult 55-64 demo is as vibrant as younger demos in ad spending, and should be targeted (and not ignored) when television marketing plans are created.

In a move widely expected inside NBC Universal since Jeff Zucker announced he was departing as chief executive, Allison Gollust, the executive vice president of corporate communications, has told her staff she too will be leaving the company when the takeover by Comcast is completed.