Even when the M&A market was shut down, Wall Street couldn’t stop speculating about GE’s intentions for its NBC Universal unit. And now that it’s deal-making time again, the chatter is getting very noisy.
Hence the flurry of coverage over yesterday’s remarks by Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy, in which he said…not very much.
Hey Googlers! Ever wonder what life is like on a big-deal, nationally televised reality show? If you’re working at the main Googleplex in Mountain View, you may be able find out: Just ask Preeti Mistry. You can find Mistry at Charlie’s Cafe, where’s she’s back to work running Google’s much celebrated cafeteria. But earlier this year, she was a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” which kicked off its sixth season this week. And she survived the first episode, clams and all.
Really doesn’t matter if you have the slightest interest in track and field. If you have a pulse, you will be amazed when you see Jamaican marvel Usain Bolt smashing yet another sprinting record, which he did just minutes ago at a German track meet. It will take NBC’s Universal Sports quite some time to get you the clip, but you can watch it right now on the world’s biggest video site.
As predicted, TV ad sales are down. And as predicted, TV networks are hoping they come back sometime in the next year, along with the economy. In the meantime, what do cheap TV ad prices do for Web video sales?
Yesterday, Google told Wall Street that its business had “stabilized” during the spring, but it may be one of the only media companies that gets to say that.
GE’s NBC Universal, for instance, just posted second-quarter results that were as bad as its first quarter. Jeff Zucker’s TV and movie unit said revenue was down eight percent, and profit down 41 percent for the three months ending June 30; in the previous quarter, revenue was only down two percent, while profit was down 43 percent.
The Nikki Finke auction is over, and the winner is…Mail.com. Jay Penske’s Mail.com Media Corporation, which owns the Mail.com email service and a small portfolio of Web sites, has acquired the blogger, whose Deadline Hollywood Daily is a must-read for Hollywood.
Web video watchers are college kids who spend all day pirating movies and TV shows, right? Well, maybe some of them are, but new survey data argues ordinary Americans are plenty comfortable watching TV online, especially when they don’t have any other choice.
New York’s Internet Week featured party after party, attended by the same group of Webby movers, shakers and hustlers gulping down drinks and snacks, night after night. The finale: A rooftop gathering in midtown Manhattan that hosted a large number of the digital media’s movers and shakers, plus their bosses, including Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch, Tim Armstrong and Jon Miller. Here’s the video.
Google has already shut down its radio and print advertising programs–because “they didn’t work well enough,” in CEO Eric Schmidt’s words. But the company is still hoping that its foray into TV pans out. Latest (small) milestone: The search giant is boasting that it has gotten marketers to commit “upwards of seven figures to buy ads” through its automated system.
The bad news for Jeff Zucker’s NBC Universal: The TV and movie powerhouse saw earnings drop 45 percent in the last quarter. The good news: The GE unit says that if you stripped out one-time costs, charges, etc., it would have only been down something like 15 to 25 percent. That’s right: For media conglomerates this quarter, down 20 percent is the new up.
CNBC’s owner wants you to know that it wasn’t his network’s fault that the Dow collapsed. “Just because someone who mocks authority says something doesn’t make it so.” Also, he’d like you to know that his broadcast and cable giant isn’t going to screw up like the newspaper guys did.
George Kliavkoff, who left his job as NBC Universal’s chief digital officer last year, has a new, similar-sounding gig: He’s going to work at at Hearst, where he’ll run digital operations for entertainment head Scott Sassa.
Last month, Hulu yanked its content off of Boxee, the buzzy start-up that makes it easy to get Web video from your PC to your TV. Today, Hulu’s stuff is back on Boxee, but without Hulu’s permission. A victory for technology in the battle against dated business models and walled gardens? Sort of. But not a resounding one.
Local television stations used to be money machines for the big media conglomerates. No more. GE’s NBC Universal says its revenues dropped three percent and that its operating profits were down six percent for the last three months of 2008, primarily because of weakness at its local TV stations.
What’s the value of media conglomerate in a recession? Less than it was a few years ago. Last week, Time Warner announced a $25 billion write-down. Now NBC Universal’s parent company, GE, may be looking at one of its own, courtesy of Vivendi, which owns a 20 percent stake in the broadcast network/movie studio/cable TV outfit.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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