Comcast and NBC Universal

[thetvworld 0]

So comcast recently got a logo redesign using the NBC peacock so why does NBC Universal no longer use it? It seems a bit strange to use the NBC logo in a logo with no mention of NBC yet to not use it in a logo for a division which does have NBC in it!

[channel2 886]

NBCUniversal's logo is a combination of the "NBC" wordmark and the serifs in the old Universal logo (a piece of lettering that was based on Copperplate Gothic).

 

The logic behind Comcast's logo is uncertain to me. It seems like a rushed job to me, and it was slapped onto the company with no advance warning, no press releases or anything.

[Pavelsauce 12]

The previous NBCU logo did have the peacock. I'm not sure why they dropped it, but it's been that way since 2011 or so. BTW, the font in the current NBCU logo is Rock Serif. IIRC, the font was custom made for the company.

[Rusty Muck 4265]

The whole conglomerate needs some corporate-wide branding intervention.

 

When NBC unveiled the current peacock logo in 1986, they made the move to put it front-and-center on all of the network's divisions (TV/radio, O&O stations, sports, news and productions) with all also adopting the same typeface and same branding standards. Most made the change within days, some O&Os took a few weeks/months to adopt it, but all did so fairly quickly, at least by 1986 standards.

 

The problem here is that this super-conglomerate is so massive that I don't know if a unified branding scheme is possible. But, quite frankly, it's stupid to delete the NBC peacock and the Universal globe and typeface from the "NBCUniversal" logo - when the intent was to differentiate from both - and then slap the NBC peacock onto the new Comcast logo. Then you have the current Universal Television - "a division of NBCUniversal," and Universal Studios - "A Comcast Company." And let's not even get into the Comcast SportsNets, which declined to be rebranded as "NBC SportsNets," but later adopted the NBC peacock. So, apparently, there is no semblance of a pecking order within that whole company anymore.

 

Seeing as how Comcast now owns ALL of NBCUni now, a major group branding standardization could be possible. But they need to perform a major corporate realignment first.

[channel2 886]

The previous NBCU logo did have the peacock. I'm not sure why they dropped it, but it's been that way since 2011 or so. BTW, the font in the current NBCU logo is Rock Serif. IIRC, the font was custom made for the company.

It was.

 

 

The whole conglomerate needs some corporate-wide branding intervention.

 

When NBC unveiled the current peacock logo in 1986, they made the move to put it front-and-center on all of the network's divisions (TV/radio, O&O stations, sports, news and productions) with all also adopting the same typeface and same branding standards. Most made the change within days, some O&Os took a few weeks/months to adopt it, but all did so fairly quickly, at least by 1986 standards.

 

The problem here is that this super-conglomerate is so massive that I don't know if a unified branding scheme is possible. But, quite frankly, it's stupid to delete the NBC peacock and the Universal globe and typeface from the "NBCUniversal" logo - when the intent was to differentiate from both - and then slap the NBC peacock onto the new Comcast logo. Then you have the current Universal Television - "a division of NBCUniversal," and Universal Studios - "A Comcast Company." And let's not even get into the Comcast SportsNets, which declined to be rebranded as "NBC SportsNets," but later adopted the NBC peacock. So, apparently, there is no semblance of a pecking order within that whole company anymore.

 

Seeing as how Comcast now owns ALL of NBCUni now, a major group branding standardization could be possible. But they need to perform a major corporate realignment first.

Yeah, that's a cluster-eff right there. The naming scheme "NBC Sports (insert region here)" would have made much more sense than the "Comcast SportsNet" continuing. Though maybe Comcast wants to dump the name "NBCUniversal" at some point (the byline in the Universal logo reading "A COMCAST COMPANY" would hint at this)...

[News 9 Viewer 100]

The whole conglomerate needs some corporate-wide branding intervention.

 

When NBC unveiled the current peacock logo in 1986, they made the move to put it front-and-center on all of the network's divisions (TV/radio, O&O stations, sports, news and productions) with all also adopting the same typeface and same branding standards. Most made the change within days, some O&Os took a few weeks/months to adopt it, but all did so fairly quickly, at least by 1986 standards.

 

The problem here is that this super-conglomerate is so massive that I don't know if a unified branding scheme is possible. But, quite frankly, it's stupid to delete the NBC peacock and the Universal globe and typeface from the "NBCUniversal" logo - when the intent was to differentiate from both - and then slap the NBC peacock onto the new Comcast logo. Then you have the current Universal Television - "a division of NBCUniversal," and Universal Studios - "A Comcast Company." And let's not even get into the Comcast SportsNets, which declined to be rebranded as "NBC SportsNets," but later adopted the NBC peacock. So, apparently, there is no semblance of a pecking order within that whole company anymore.

 

Seeing as how Comcast now owns ALL of NBCUni now, a major group branding standardization could be possible. But they need to perform a major corporate realignment first.

The rebrand wasn't refused by the RSNs. It was Dick Ebersol's idea and was abandoned when he resigned.

 

Personally, I think Comcast should seperate Universal from NBC (Universal can continue to produce NBC shows). But when was the last time Comcast made a smart decision? They're a laughably incompetent company that owns a laughably incompetent television network. What a perfect couple!

[Jess 1110]

Personally, I think Comcast should seperate Universal from NBC (Universal can continue to produce NBC shows). But when was the last time Comcast made a smart decision? They're a laughably incompetent company that owns a laughably incompetent television network. What a perfect couple!

There are a lot of words I'd use to describe Comcast. Incompetent is not one of them.

[Rusty Muck 4265]

Yeah, that's a cluster-eff right there. The naming scheme "NBC Sports (insert region here)" would have made much more sense than the "Comcast SportsNet" continuing. Though maybe Comcast wants to dump the name "NBCUniversal" at some point (the byline in the Universal logo reading "A COMCAST COMPANY" would hint at this)...

NBCUniversal is completely unnecessary, it's downright shameful. "A Comcast Comany" should be the universal (pun unintended) byline throughout the whole conglomerate.

 

Personally, I think Comcast should seperate Universal from NBC (Universal can continue to produce NBC shows). But when was the last time Comcast made a smart decision? They're a laughably incompetent company that owns a laughably incompetent television network. What a perfect couple!

What, like how CBS (CBS Corp.) and Paramount (Viacom) successfully co-exist under the same primary owner (National Amusements/Sumner Redstone)?

 

Thing is, that type of mutual separation through a corporate realignment may take several years to accomplish. It took a little over one year with the Viacom/CBS decoupling.

[News 9 Viewer 100]

There are a lot of words I'd use to describe Comcast. Incompetent is not one of them.

You're right. To call the whole company incompetent is unfair. I'll give Comcast credit for one thing: growing into one of America's largest cable providers.

 

But their media ventures aren't what you'd call successful. The state of NBC has gone from bad to so bad that with 30 Rock in its final season you can count the network's bright spots on one hand (Sunday Night Football, The Voice and Nightly News). The performance of the cable division is a mixed bag. USA rules ratings wise, but with FS1 and FS2 on the way with big league rights galore, the NBC Sports Network is now even further away from being a true alternative to ESPN and G4 is losing its identity to metrosexuality.

[channel2 886]

G4 was never a very well managed channel in the first place. Its demise was inevitable, though really if they hadn't tried to make it resemble the typical MyNetworkTV station they could have had a goldmine on their hands.

 

Bravo's fallen pretty far too, hasn't it?

[A3N 996]

You're right. To call the whole company incompetent is unfair. I'll give Comcast credit for one thing: growing into one of America's largest cable providers.

 

But their media ventures aren't what you'd call successful. The state of NBC has gone from bad to so bad that with 30 Rock in its final season you can count the network's bright spots on one hand (Sunday Night Football, The Voice and Nightly News). The performance of the cable division is a mixed bag. USA rules ratings wise, but with FS1 and FS2 on the way with big league rights galore, the NBC Sports Network is now even further away from being a true alternative to ESPN and G4 is losing its identity to metrosexuality.

Well to be fair, NBC already had problems when Comcast took over. So far what they have done with the network hasn't been working out too well (with a few notable exceptions- the voice, Sunday Night Football, etc.). The NBC Sports Network was in far worse shape than it is now, back when it was Versus and was not available in as many households- again that sort of falls on the old regime. What Comcast hasn't done too well is attract the big sports that would really make the network stand out. They had a golden opportunity to one-up Turner and take the Sunday afternoon MLB package (and possibly add in a few more games from its own regional sports networks, like Fox Sports 1 plans to do next year), yet Comcast bowed out because of costs. Costs are going up whether its on the sports or entertainment side and they can't afford to be cheap otherwise they will continue to get hammered. I have to give them props on the NBC O&O's, they were in shambles during the Zucker/GE era, but they invested a lot of money and resources into that venture and the difference is like night and day.

[News 9 Viewer 100]

Well to be fair' date=' NBC already had problems when Comcast took over. So far what they have done with the network hasn't been working out too well (with a few notable exceptions- the voice, Sunday Night Football, etc.). [b']The NBC Sports Network was in far worse shape than it is now, back when it was Versus [/b]and was not available in as many households- again that sort of falls on the old regime. What Comcast hasn't done too well is attract the big sports that would really make the network stand out. They had a golden opportunity to one-up Turner and take the Sunday afternoon MLB package (and possibly add in a few more games from its own regional sports networks, like Fox Sports 1 plans to do next year), yet Comcast bowed out because of costs. Costs are going up whether its on the sports or entertainment side and they can't afford to be cheap otherwise they will continue to get hammered. I have to give them props on the NBC O&O's, they were in shambles during the Zucker/GE era, but they invested a lot of money and resources into that venture and the difference is like night and day.

Thank god they've emerged from that dark age.

[Rusty Muck 4265]

You're right. To call the whole company incompetent is unfair. I'll give Comcast credit for one thing: growing into one of America's largest cable providers.

 

But their media ventures aren't what you'd call successful. The state of NBC has gone from bad to so bad that with 30 Rock in its final season you can count the network's bright spots on one hand (Sunday Night Football, The Voice and Nightly News). The performance of the cable division is a mixed bag. USA rules ratings wise, but with FS1 and FS2 on the way with big league rights galore, the NBC Sports Network is now even further away from being a true alternative to ESPN and G4 is losing its identity to metrosexuality.

And the sad thing is, neither "30 Rock" or "The Office" were never ratings standouts in the mold of the 90s MustSeeTV era. To call either show as a bright spot (well, the first few seasons of "The Office" at least) is setting the bar really low.

 

NBC has not only been unable to develop true hits in prime time, they've managed to screw up the successful franchises they had. What with Today being expanded into a four-hour long cluster-f and ultimately collapsing in the ratings under Matt Lauer's massive ego, the whole Tonight Show host conflict of 2010 (which came dangerously close to happening AGAIN), the depletion of NBC Sports between 1999 and 2005 - which they never really have recovered from, etc.

 

Then they go and delay both Revolution and The Voice into April, bypassing the Feburary sweeps and turning the network into #5 overall.

 

It's that bad.

[d247 43]

Just caught a new "The More You Know" spot during NBC Kids which showed the Comcast and NBCUniversal names in the Comcast font separated by a gray peacock.

[ABC 7 Denver 1570]

Just caught a new "The More You Know" spot during NBC Kids which showed the Comcast and NBCUniversal names in the Comcast font separated by a gray peacock.

The more I read about and watch the ComcastNBCUniversal networks, The More I Know that at least for main network ratings, this relationship isn't working out.

 

[ABC 7 Denver 1570]

Just caught a new "The More You Know" spot during NBC Kids which showed the Comcast and NBCUniversal names in the Comcast font separated by a gray peacock.

The more I read about and watch the ComcastNBCUniversal networks, The more I know that at least for main network ratings, this relationship isn't working out.

 

[Rusty Muck 4265]

Just caught a new "The More You Know" spot during NBC Kids which showed the Comcast and NBCUniversal names in the Comcast font separated by a gray peacock.

One of which is right here.

 

Looks to me like they might be finally starting to phase out "NBCUniversal" at long last.