A terrible fall season at NBC is forcing the network to consider scaling back the number of hours it airs programming, Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday.
While NBC will continue to fund the creation of pilots, Zucker told analysts at a media investor conference sponsored by UBS that NBC is considering cutting the number of hours or perhaps even the number of nights it provides programming.
“Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don’t. Can we afford to program seven nights a week? One of our competitors doesn’t,” Zucker said. “All of these questions have to be on the table. And we are actively looking at all of those questions.”
Zucker’s comments came after the company last week laid off 500 employees – about 3 percent of its work force of 15,000 – as part of a plan to trim $500 million next year.
Part of the problem at NBC has to do with the economic cri sis and slowdown in advertising revenue in a market that is “as difficult as any we’ve seen,” Zucker said. “Businesses are just afraid to commit.”
Zucker said he did not blame the poor ratings at NBC on NBC Entertainment co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff.
“We have not had a good fall at NBC. I don’t think that’s lost on anyone,” he said, adding, “but in no way have we lost confidence in either one of them.”
Zucker also said there needs to be a major change at its 10 owned-and-operated local TV stations, which have been hard-hit by a decline in advertising, especially from the auto sector.
“We’re in an era where if we don’t change the models of these local TV stations, we will be newspapers, we will be car companies,” he said. “I don’t want to be a company that files for bankruptcy.”
NBC was doing stronger on the cable network front, and Zucker said he expects revenues from its cable channels, which include Bravo, USA Network and MSNBC, to grow in the double-digit percentages next year.
In 2009, double-digit growth in cable advertising and single-digit growth in affiliate fees will lift the division, which accounts for 60 percent of the profit at the company, a unit of General Electric Co., he said.
“Every one of our cable networks … are going to enjoy their best year ever this year both from a financial standpoint and a ratings standpoint,” Zucker said. “We believe that will again be the case in 2009.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More