NBC O&Os Reinvesting and Restaffing

[Jess 1115]

Comcast held its 2nd quarter earnings call today, with a big chunk of it predictably focused on NBC Universal. Deadline had a writeup of it, and the part we're interested in I'll bold here:

 

In this morning's analyst call, NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke subtly dinged General Electric for its management of NBC until January, when Comcast took charge. He says the conglomerate hadn't supplied the cash that's "necessary to compete." Burke says Comcast is changing that: "In general we see this year, and next year probably, as investment years." The turnaround at primetime's No. 4 broadcast network could take as long as four years, but "I'm confident we'll get there."

 

Comcast also is beefing up its TV stations' local news. It's adding 135 people at 10 stations including 40 reporters and 20 producers; five markets are building investigative units. Burke says the investments will pay off: With growing revenue from retransmission consent deals and license fees from online streaming services such as Netflix, "content is more valuable today than it was" when Comcast agreed to buy NBCU. He adds that despite the weak economy "we don't see any signs of deceleration" in ad sales. CEO Brian Roberts echoed Burke's enthusiasm but warned analysts that "we have to have realistic expectations." Roberts added that while "there's economic news that's rattled the markets," Comcast is still "investing and getting good financial results."

 

I checked the NBCUnicareers.com site and there is indeed a large host of openings under "NBC Local Media" (even though that's no longer the name). While there's a bunch of openings for the reporter and investigative positions, I'm also seeing plenty of promotion-related positions and graphic artist openings. Which pretty much indicates that they're realizing the whole "let's centralize our promotions in New York" thing was a horrible idea.

 

This is encouraging to me, though. I was hopeful that Comcast realized that GE was starving the parts of NBCU that weren't the cable networks or the movie studio. The comments above make it clear that they did, and they're investing money to fix that.

[C Block 1566]

Always good to hear about new hiring rather than cutting.

 

By the way, is "Daily Connection" being discontinued? I remember reading on here that WCAU and a few others are axing it in favor of real news. KTVD replaced their edition of it with a real newscast about a week or two ago.

[WCAUTVNBC10 413]

Always good to hear about new hiring rather than cutting.

 

By the way, is "Daily Connection" being discontinued? I remember reading on here that WCAU and a few others are axing it in favor of real news. KTVD replaced their edition of it with a real newscast about a week or two ago.

 

WCAU never ran a Daily Connection. The closest thing to midday news they ran was the NonStop channel's The Rundown which was a pretty light look at the day's news. Nothing like an evening side newscast. From the looks of things they've discontinued The Rundown although I think the show is just on hiatus with all the vacations at the station right now.

[Action Newsroom 1283]

 

WCAU never ran a Daily Connection. The closest thing to midday news they ran was the NonStop channel's The Rundown which was a pretty light look at the day's news. Nothing like an evening side newscast. From the looks of things they've discontinued The Rundown although I think the show is just on hiatus with all the vacations at the station right now.

I really liked The Rundown; really made my day. When I kept tuning to NonStop @1pm recently to only see Cash Cab on its timeslot, I was disappointed that TRD is off the air. I hope that TRD is on hiatus and not cancelled. I will be pissed if it is.