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By Will Skalmoski Comcast Corporation Comcast Center 1701 JFK Boulevard Philadelphia, PA 19103 About Ralph Roberts founded Comcast Corporation with the purchase of a 12,000-subscriber cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1963. The corporation now includes two businesses, Comcast Cable … Continue reading
by Lindsay Wolfson
NBC Universal Television
Stephen B. Burke: Chief Executive Officer
Matt Bond: Executive Vice President of Content Distribution
Cesar Conde: Executive Vice President
Robert Greenblatt: Chairman, NBC Entertainment
Patricia Fili-Krushel: Chairman: NBC Universal News Group, NBC Universal
Ted Harbert: Chairman for NBC Broadcasting
The National Broadcast Company (NBC) was founded in 1926 with an original focus on National Radio Broadcasting, but then made the transformation into Television Broadcasting. [1]. Universal Studios began in 1906 when an immigrant bought a movie theater and then rapidly expanded his business, which inevitably led to the first enclosed space specifically designed for moviemaking. [2]. NBC and Universal became one unified company in May of 2004. These companies came together and created a unique product of television distribution and part of the film industry. On the broadcast side, there were two main networks, NBC and Telemundo, and along with the broadcast channels were countless cable networks. Of the NBC-U broadcast stations there are over 200 affiliates nationwide in major cities such as New York and Philadelphia. [3] Originally, General Electric and Vivendi owned this new founded conglomerate, but now the majority owner is the Comcast Corporation, which owns 51%. [4]. This change of hands occurred back in January of 2011. Since NBC original formation, this company has developed into a nationally recognized source for news, entertainment in sports in the television industry.
Photo Courtesy of http://www.cmcsa.com/stocklookup.cfm
Fiscally, Comcast Corporation is a very successful corporation that is publically traded and its individual branches such as NBC-U share in that success. This past quarter, which ended in late October, demonstrated a thriving fiscal period. On the broadcast side, revenue increased 7.7% to $1.8 billion compared to the $1.6 billion achieved in the same quarter in 2013. According to the fiscal report, due to the NBC-U Broadcast’s reliable success this monetary growth in revenue is caused by the increase from advertising revenue. There are also increases in content licensing profits and retransmission consent fees. Operating cash flow increased as well for NBC-U Broadcasting. Comparatively, to the NBC-U cable networks, there was a significantly greater amount of growth. NBC-U’s cable networks only had 0.7% grown while its broadcast has 7.7% growth. Last year’s extensive fiscal success was caused in part by the promotion from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. [5]. Comcast’s stock has been pretty stable over the past year ranging from $57.49 to $47.74. Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the price of stock for Comcast indicating its growing success within the industry. In terms of total revenue for the Comcast Corporation, the company had a 6.2% increase from 2012 to 2013. As the year closes, it will be interesting to see if the 2014 fiscal year will bring about the same impressive results as did 2013 for the Comcast Corporation and NBC-U. [6].
This chart indicates the increased value of a stock of Comcast. Photo Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=CMCSA+Basic+Chart#%7B%22range%22%3A%2210y%22%2C%22lineType%22%3A%22combo%22%2C%22scale%22%3A%22linear%22%7D.
A to Z is new romantic comedy starring Ben Feldman and Cristin Milioti.
Back in early June, NBC U released which shows were going to premiere in the Fall 2014 Season. [7]. The major staple show for the fall season was expected to be The Voice and it was utilized as a fulcrum for generating viewership on both Monday and Tuesday evenings in general for the network. NBC programmers were hopeful that the large viewership from The Voice would help the ratings for the shows that directly followed. Interestingly, although NBC-U generates extensive amounts of original content, the big draw for viewership is Sunday Night Football. This strong viewership pushed NBC-U into the top spot for broadcast this past year. Sunday Night Football even challenged the World Series this past October in questioning which would receive more viewership. [8]. There were many programs tested for this past Fall Season.
The new comedy pilots for the Fall 2014 season included Bad Judge, Marry Me, and A to Z and the new drama pilots included Constantine, State of Affairs and The Mysteries of Laura.
The Mysteries of Laura is a new drama starring Debra Messing. Courtesy of imdb.com
State of Affairs is a new drama starring Katherine Heigl. Courtesy of imdb.com
Out of those new pilots that were slated for Fall 2014 Season, many were not picked up to continue. Comedies such as A to Z and Bad Judge will not continue further after this initial trial run, but these shows will both finish production and air the remaining product. [9]. Both shows had started decently in terms of ratings, but then they both started to collapse. For NBC’s newest dramas such as State of Affairs and Mysteries of Laura, they have had a decent start amongst the Broadcast lineup and have not been cancelled as of yet.
Information Courtesy of http://www.nbc.com
“Mysteries of Laura” has surprisingly kept its presence along with other dramas with a 1.8 rating amongst 18-49 years olds. [10]. In terms of ratings, Sunday Night Football drives up the ratings for NBC. For instance, the week ending with November 23rd, #1 Saturday Night Football generated a rating of 8.1 for 18-49 years which was far greater than the #2 Big Bang Theory which received a 4.1 for the same age demographic. This shows that across multiple genres, NBC exhibits success in primetime Broadcast Television.
After the record-breaking spring launch of NBC’s new Late Night lineup, the success of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with Seth Meyers has continued its success into the Fall 2014 Season. The Tonight Show has been pretty strong against its competitors such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Show with David Letterman. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has received 1.18/6 rating for the 18-49 demographic which surpasses his direct timeslot competitors in the 2014 3rd Quarter. Many were fearful that Jimmy Fallon’s success was only temporary, but now after continuing on this fall season that appears not be the case. [16].
Also, this past fall has marked the 40th season for Saturday Night Live, which remains under the direction of Lorne Michaels. Overall, this season has been pretty weak in terms of ratings, but peaked when Chris Rock hosted with musical guest Prince. [11]. This show’s best rating so far received only a 2.2/10 for the key 18-49 demographic, which is not very strong at all.
Opening Sequence for Saturday Night Live’s 40th Season. http://vimeo.com/107482286
(Photo Courtesy of http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/04/25/saturday-night-live-clips-coming-to-yahoo/ )
Every year, one of the major staples for NBC Broadcast is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, even though it is not during primetime hours. This past Thanksgiving, the parade received its 3nd largest rating in the past 13 years. The program received a 6.2/10 rating in adults 18-49 and 22.6 million viewers total. Last year’s parade though, had the 2nd largest viewership with a rating of 6.6/10 since 2004. [12].
Every year, one of the major fall staples for NBC Broadcast is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Photo Courtesy of http://social.macys.com/parade/?cm_mmc=VanityUrl-_-parade-_-n-_-n
After receiving over 18 million viewers and 4 Emmy Nominations for the Sound of Music Live, NBC decided to proceed and create another live performance. [13] [17]. This new performance of Peter Pan will be starring Allison Williams as Peter Pan and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.
Peter Pan Live will be airing December 4th at 8pm starring Allison Williams as Peter Pan and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook. [15].
1. Announcing the National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (1926). (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://earlyradiohistory.us/1926nbc.htm
2. NBCUniversal History. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/about-us/history
3. NBCUniversal. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2014, from http://corporate.comcast.com/our-company/businesses/nbcuniversal#accordion-1
4. Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=comcast
5. Comcast. (2014, October 23). Retrieved November 6, 2014, from http://www.cmcsa.com/earnings.cfm
6. Comcast Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CMCSA
7. Kissell, R. (2014, June 2). NBC Announces Fall Premiere Dates for New, Returning Series. Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/nbc-announces-fall-premiere-dates-for-new-returning-series-1201207308/
8. Kissell, R. (2014, October 27). Ratings: NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ Dominates World Series on Fox. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/data/ratings/ratings-nbcs-sunday-night-football-dominates-world-series-on-fox-1201340093/
9. Hibberd, J. (2014, October 31). NBC to cancel ‘Bad Judge,’ ‘A to Z’ with zombie twist | EW.com. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/10/31/bad-judge-a-to-z/
10. Predum, L. (2014, October 28). NBC Gives ‘Mysteries of Laura’ Full Season Pickup. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/mysteries-of-laura-full-season-pickup-nbc-1201341098/
11. Kissell, R. (2014, November 2). NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Hits Season Highs With Chris Rock, Prince. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/nbcs-saturday-night-live-hits-season-highs-with-chris-rock-prince-1201345402/
12. Bibel, S. (2014, November 28). ‘Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade’ Garners 22.6 Million Viewers, Ranking as The Second Most-Watched Parade in 13 Years. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/11/28/macys-thanksgiving-parade-garners-22-6-million-viewers-ranking-as-the-second-most-watched-parade-in-13-years/333311/
13. About. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://www.nbc.com/peter-pan-live/about
14. Littleton, C. (2014, November 26). NBC Hopes ‘Peter Pan Live’ Can Fly to New Heights. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/tv/features/peter-pan-live-nbc-new-heights-1201364850/
15. Watch Peter Pan Live! December 4 on NBC from Peter Pan LIVE! on NBC.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://www.nbc.com/peter-pan-live/video/peter-pan-live-december-4-on-nbc/2820050
16. Kissell, R. (2014, September 25). Variety. Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/latenight-ratings-nbcs-fallon-meyers-easy-winners-for-q3-abcs-kimmel-nightline-up-1201313970/
17. The Sound Of Music Live! (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://www.nbc.com/the-sound-of-music-live
By Conor McGovern
Key Executives [1]:
About NBCUniversal [7]:
NBCUniversal is a mass media company, and as of early 2013 fully owned by Comcast Corporation [9], that delievers entertainment, news and sports all across the globe. NBCUniversal creates and distributes content for broadcast and cable television, film, and online. With cooperate owenership and influence all around the world, NBCUniversal is much deserving of its name.
Broadcast & Cable Television:
NBC and Telemundo broadcast television networks are at the forefront of NBCUniversal’s television presence. Telemundo offers premium spanish language programming aimed at the Hispanic community. It is a one stop shop for a variety of shows, ranging from news to telenovelas and reality television. With powerhouse shows such as The Voice, Community, TODAY, Law & Order: SVU, America’s Got Talent and many more, NBC offers a variety of content to all television watchers across America. NBCUniversal also owns several NBC affiliates throughout the country, delivering high quality regional based content to the nation’s biggest cities.
As far as cable is concerned, NBCUniversal continues to grow its reach across all different types of audiences. NBCUniversal has cable channel offerings such as E!, USA, SyFy, The Golf Channel, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC and many others. This diverse distribution of their cable investments shows how NBCU can make an impact on your television viewing experience no matter what you enjoy.
Film & Digital Media:
Universal Pictures, one the six major film studios, is also owned by NBCUniversal. With recent and future releases such as About Time, The Best Man Holiday, and Lone Survivor, NBCUniversal will look for star-power to bring in large gains as the holiday season quickly approaches.
On the web, NBCUniversal has its hands in many nontraditional media outlets such as Hulu, Fandango, and iVillage. Fandago and Hulu link its users to an online stream or even a physical ticket to explore a vast array of movies and television entertainment. iVillage is a lifestyle, entertainment and news website geared towards women that boasts an impressive 30 million unique visitors a month [14].
Financials:
NBCUniversal continues to bring in great profit over the years with 2013 being no exception. NBCUniversal had a very solid 3rd quarter of the year with revenue increasing by 3.9% [15]. However, a huge portion of the quarterly gains were seen by the great success Despicable Me 2 has shown for Universal Pictures. On the television side of things, operating cash flow increased by 5.4% for the cable unit while plummiting by 61% for the broadcast unit [16].
NBCUniversal will look to bounce back with a great increase in revenue once the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia being. NBCUniversal has exclusive rights to the Olympics and hope to bring in similar numbers to their 2012 Summer Olympic coverage, which generated $1.2 billion in revenue [16] .
What’s Happening Now?
Aiming for a Younger Demographic?
NBCUniversal just sealed a deal to bump its cable television offerings with the purchase of the childrens cable network, Sprout, from PBS and HIT Television Ventures. The numbers and terms of the transaction have yet to be released. Unlike some other television networks such as Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, Sprout is aimed at children 5 and below. This unique age gap will give NBCUniversal the ability to introduce Sprout watchers to the NBCU brand. Sprout currently broadcasts the PBS show, Sesame Street, as well as Lazy Town and others that remain popular with the demographic. It will be interesting to see if NBCUniversal can hold on to the rights to some of the existing programming, or if they create their own original content. Another prospect to consider is NBCUniversal rebranding the channel to coincide with an age demographic more suitable to be a bridge to their other cable channels. [18]
The BPL on NBCSN:
With the relaunch of NBC Sports Network back in January of 2012, NBCSN has constantly been looking for ways to distinguish themselves from the crowd. Channels like FOX Sports 1, as well as the giant that is ESPN, both threaten to take away viewership from NBCSN. However, with the purchase of the exclusive rights to broadcast the Barclay’s Premier League, England’s top soccer league, NBCSN has done well since the late-august launch of the BPL on the network. Comparing to last years opening weekend of the BPL on FOX Soccer Channel and ESPN, NBC and NBCSN averaged a .5 rating, a 67% increase over the average .3 rating their competitors had [20]. To put this success even more into perspective, NBCUniversal had 9 million viewers watch the first 5 game weeks of the season. This is quite impressive when you look at the only 4.8 million viewers who tuned in to watch the first 5 game weeks last year [21]. While the number may not seem very high, it is quite understandable given the morning start times of these games because of the time change.
An Olympic-sized push:
The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics are quickly approaching and NBCU is ready to go. NBCUniversal has begun its 100-day company wide countdown to the opening ceremony. There is a lot on the line for NBCU to make sure that this olympics is as profitable as ever, considering its $775 million rights fee [23]. As a way to promote the coverage of this worldwide event, NBCU will play high quality promotional commercials over the upcoming weeks across all of its broadcast and cable networks. Also, NBC and other NBCU channels have already begun to display the iconic peacock bug symbol with the olympic rings below it [24]. However it will be interesting to see if the time zone shift will have an impact on ratings as Sochi and New York have an 8-hour time difference.
Below is a Sochi 2014 promotional video NBCU will use across its variety of networks.
Courtesy of Youtube [25]:
Twitter & NBCU strike a deal:
Last month NBCUniversal and Twitter announced a partnership to bring television and social even closer. Initially the deal works for Xfinity Comcast cable subscribers who will be able to essentially see a tweet about a show or movie and turn that into a direct link to watch or DVR it. Twitter will also be using this deal to advertise out an array of NBCUniversal content through promotional tweets. Look for both companies to push this social move onto other networks to heighten its popularity. [27]
Branson and NBCUniversal Liftoff:
Comcast and Virgin Galactic have partnered to bring the unique experience of the first commercial space flight, by no one other than Richard Branson, to the NBCUniversal family of networks next year. The coverage of this event will end with a 3-hour live special the day of the launch on TODAY. NBCUniversal will attempt to build hype around this event in hope that it will be considered a monumental moment in television history. [29]
Sources
[1] http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/management/executives/
[3] http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/leadership-overview/brian-l-roberts
[5] http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/management/senior-corporate-executives/nbc-universal/cesar-conde/
[6] http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/management/senior-corporate-executives/nbc-universal/ted-harbert/
[7]http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/about-us/
[8] http://www.nbcuni.com/site-content/uploads/2012/05/1-NBCU_homepage4.jpg
[10] http://media.getthefive.com/uploads/article_images/nbc-universal-logo.jpg
[12] http://vector-magz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ivillage-logo.gif
[14] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/ivillage
[15] http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=670469
[16] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/despicable-me-2-helps-boost-651661
[19] http://worldsoccertalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/nbc-epl1.jpg
[20] http://advanced-television.com/2013/08/19/premier-league-record-us-ratings-for-nbc/
[22]http://www.urizendesign.com/img/sochi_logo.jpg
[25] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU4QZVO2lQs
[26] http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/nbc-s-shows-to-stream-on-twitter.jpg
[27] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-showcase-tv-shows-twitter-646261
[28] http://www.time4aviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/original-640×250.jpg
[29] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbcuniversal-televise-first-commercial-space-654608
