NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal said that Dan Lovinger had been promoted to president, NBC advertising sales and partnerships. Lovinger, who had been executive VP, sales and partnerships, NBC Sports Group, will be responsible for stewarding and monetizing all of NBCU’s Olympics and Paralympics business, including advertising sales for all games through 2032, according to a memo to staff from Linda Yaccarino, chairman, global advertising sales and partnerships at NBCU. Lovinger will also manage NBCU’s partnership with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Properties group.

The number of monthly users of the streaming service — 24.5 million active accounts at the end of 2021 — is already at 75% of the company’s original projection for 2024, including 9 million who are paying for either limited commercials or no commercials. Thus, spending is being ramped up for even faster growth, with profits from the rest of NBCUniversal easily covering a few more years of losses at Peacock.

Anzio Williams, SVP of diversity, equity and inclusion at NBCUniversal Local, draws on his long tenure as a news director to guide strategies for sustainable changes in the industry, changes he says are finally taking root beyond “quick fixes.”

NBCU today pledged to hold forth from Radio City Music Hall once again, just as it has for many years before the coronavirus pandemic scuttled the in-person extravaganzas that have become so much a part of the TV networks’ annual pitch to advertisers. The owner of the NBC, MSNBC and USA networks said it would kick off the industry’s annual Upfront Week on May 16, with an evening event aimed at promoting Spanish-language outlet Telemundo, marking a return to at least some of the traditions of the annual market, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for their next programming cycle.

The new arrangement comes as a direct result of NBCUniversal’s RFP last year to social media platforms to propose new content, product and monetization approaches for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

NBCUniversal, conducting a high-profile process to find measurement approaches that better fit the modern media world, tapped iSpot.TV as the first company in the stable it will use for quantifying cross-media video consumption in advertising sales transactions.

NBCUniversal is looking to the 2022 Winter Olympics to give its Peacock streaming platform a boost. The company said Wednesday that it will stream every event live, as well as NBC’s primetime show and studio programming, on Peacock’s premium tier. All paid subscribers (the premium tier costs $4.99 per month with ads) will have access, with no pay TV subscription required.

As marketers are looking to navigate a world without cookies and device IDs, NBCUniversal is creating a first-party roadmap for them. The company is rolling out NBCUnified, its new first-party consumer data and identity platform for marketers. The platform, due to debut in the second quarter, incorporates NBCUniversal’s network of consumer touchpoints across its entire portfolio into a scaled data offering for marketers within its One Platform ad offering.

Following suit of its rivals, streamer Peacock said Thursday that most feature films from sister company Universal Filmed Entertainment Group could debut exclusively on Peacock as early as 45 days after their theatrical release. The big caveat: event pics including next year’s Jurassic World and Minions installments, or Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film, aren’t expected to be part of the 45-day crew.

NBCUniversal has rebranded its international production business to better align with Universal Studio Group and sister studios UCP, Universal Television and Universal Television Alternative Studio. The change is cosmetic and little else is changing structurally on the international side. The shift solely impacts the production operations, and distribution group NBCUniversal International Global Distribution will remain titled as such.

NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, Nielsen and more are seeking the best way to provide accurate, usable information to buyers and sellers.

The company held its first industry-wide measurement innovation forum on Tuesday.

After years of complaints, NBCUniversal and its peers are looking for other ways to count viewers, with or without the ratings giant. Next Tuesday, NBCUniversal plans to host a forum to discuss alternative ways to measure its audience. Representatives of major advertising agencies, industry trade groups and companies including Ford Motor, L’Oreal and Pfizer are expected to attend. NBCUniversal is also sifting through proposals from 80 measurement companies, Nielsen among them, to create new methods for quantifying viewers.

The new agreement expands marketing activations into messaging, via Holler’s contextually recommended expressive content.

NBCUniversal is making its livestream shopping debut with a show on Instagram and other platforms during the holiday season, allowing viewers to buy clothing, home decor and other products featured in the program, the Comcast unit said on Tuesday.

NBCUniversal said several of its NBC Sports franchises will be finding new homes on cable on USA Network in 2022, including Premier League soccer, NASCAR and IndyCar races. The shift comes as the company shuts down the NBCSN cable network at the end of the year. Some sports programming will also be appearing on CNBC and Peacock.

In the wake of a court order that permanently shut down Locast, the erstwhile provider of free streams of local broadcast TV feeds is now on the hook to pay $32 million in statutory damages after agreeing to settle a copyright lawsuit brought by ABC, CBS, Fox and NBCUniversal.

Media revenues for NBCU were up 47.5% to $6.8 billion. Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh noted that included approximately $1.8 billion attributed to the Tokyo Olympics. But excluding the Olympics, revenues were still up 9.2%, driven by higher distribution and advertising revenue.

NBCUniversal parent company Comcast beat on both revenue and earnings expectations in the third quarter of 2021, which featured both the (delayed) Tokyo Olympics and “F9.” Wall Street had forecast earnings per share of 75 cents on $29.87 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate compiled by Yahoo Finance. Comcast reported adjusted EPS of 87 cents on $30.298 billion in revenue. The adjustment made up just one penny per share.

Walker will oversee all digital platform programming and priority management and is tasked with driving digital revenue, acquisition and engagement across NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, SYFY, Universal Kids and USA as well as audience acquisition in sports.

Longtime NBCUniversal executive Lisa Hsia, who has worked in a wide variety of roles through the years at the company, is exiting after 27 years. The Emmy award-winning exec has decided to switch careers and work as a consultant for organizations. Hsia was most recently EVP of audience acquisition and growth for NBC Entertainment and NBC Sports, handling first-party data, optimizing CRM capabilities and driving audience engagement and growth across entertainment and sports platforms.

More than a year after Ron Meyer was shown the door suddenly at NBCUniversal over an affair, a payout by him and alleged extortion attempt against him, the former vice chairman of the Comcast-owned company has received a payout of his own. In a deal negotiated by Hollywood heavyweight attorney Patricia Glaser, Meyer has landed a settlement in the realm of $20 million.

The appointment comes two days after Campbell announced that she was leaving Disney’s Hulu, where she had been president. Campbell will join the Peacock leadership team starting in November and will be based in the Los Angeles area. She will report to Matt Strauss, chairman, NBCU’s Direct-to-Consumer and International.

NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have reached a carriage agreement a day after the previous one expired, enabling 14 NBCU networks to avoid going dark. The companies had been at odds in recent days over a number of networks, including regional sports outlets, the broadcast mother ship and local stations.

NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks are still live on YouTube TV, after the media company and Google reached a short-term extension to their previous distribution agreement just prior to the Sept. 30 midnight ET expiration.

Another carriage fight has burst into public view: NBCUniversal on Sunday said it was notifying customers with YouTube TV that more than 14 of its networks, including local NBC channels, could go dark on the streaming service in a matter of days. NBCU’s deal with YouTube TV is set to expire Thursday, Sept. 30. Google is unwilling to pay the higher rates the media conglomerate is asking in the renewal talks, according to NBCU. Google said that if it can’t reach a deal by Sept. 30, it will reduce YouTube TV’s monthly subscription fee by $10 per month while the NBCU nets are dark.

The U.S. media group, which operates broadcast network NBC, a slew of cable networks and streamer Peacock, and the British public broadcaster have teamed up to find unscripted shows that can work both in the States and UK. The pair will hunt for shows produced by British producers across unscripted genres and will look to co-commission pilots or develop projects with series potential.

Quintanilla is the writer and creator of Netflix original “Control Z” and now serves as senior director of future original development at NBCUniversal Telemundo.

After working at NBCUniversal for a decade, 59-year-old television executive Mark “Scott” Vila has gone public with an age discrimination complaint against the entertainment behemoth. Vila, who oversaw programming development for NBCUniversal properties including Syfy, USA Network and streaming service Peacock, was among nearly a dozen employees laid off this February.

The new initiative is designed to “formally mobilize a highly effective group of the top strategic minds in research, analytics and insights from TV publisher companies to accelerate the pace of overdue innovation in media measurement and currency.”

After its first two seasons were disrupted by the pandemic, the syndicated Kelly Clarkson Show has big expectations to fulfill. But its host is ready to come back better and, yes, stronger.

The request comes in an open letter from rights groups representing minorities in China, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents and others. The letter, obtained by the Associated Press, was sent Tuesday to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Shell and other international broadcast executives. NBC is paying $7.75 billion for the rights to the next six Olympics and works closely as a partner with the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee.

The conglomerate burned tons of promotional jet fuel, only to drive a ratings hit for Netflix and wind up with nothing for itself.