General Electric Co. and Comcast Corp. have settled on how to value NBC Universal now and in the future, clearing a key obstacle to giving Comcast control of GE’s television and movie company, according to people familiar with the matter.
Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan thinks you may be swapping your Comcast shares for Time Warner Cable sometime soon.
In a note to clients this morning, Eagan writes that investors may rotate out of Comcast if the company decides to invest $12 billion to $14 billion for a stake in GE’s NBC-Universal, as rumored.
Business leaders clearly think the world is back to normal: A media company is weighing a deal of dubious logic. News that Comcast is in talks to buy control of NBC Universal can only confirm cable investors’ worst fears about Comcast’s fixation on expanding in content.
Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co. are discussing a plan that would merge Comcast’s cable networks with GE’s NBC Universal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
So, the latest theory seems to be that Comcast is in talks to buy 20-50 percent of NBC Universal, the TV/movie studio/cable/theme park company owned 80 percent by General Electric and 20 percent by Vivendi.
Hulu is stepping up its global initiatives to compete for audience and advertising dollars overseas.
On Monday, the video-streaming site added Johannes Larcher to its executive ranks as senior vice president of international. Mr. Larcher must work with each content provider to negotiate international rights for each video. Hulu has more than 130 content providers and 1,100 TV programs and movies, and its library continues to grow.
Is more always better?
Hulu has expanded its content library considerably since its launch a year ago. The Internet video site has grown from 50 content partners to more than 130 and has nearly 40,000 pieces of video.
When NBC Universal and News Corp. created Hulu, they gave the video portal a valuable but short-term asset: exclusive rights to distribute NBC and Fox shows outside of the media giants’ own websites. Hulu.com has become the fourth-biggest online video distributor. But with exclusivity deal ending soon, Hulu will have to see if it can defend the audience and brand it has built.
On TV, content is king. But on the Web, community may reign supreme. Throughout television history, the way to lure most viewers was to air the best shows. It doesn’t necessarily work that way on the Web, where many shows can be seen on multiple sites.
Mobile marketing network 4INFO plans to announce Thursday that it has received $20 million in venture funding led by Peacock Equity, a joint venture between NBC Universal and GE Commercial Finance’s media, communications and entertainment business.
Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal, was famously quoted earlier this year warning that the media industry had to work so “that we do not end up trading analog dollars for digital pennies.” It’s a great line and an even better observation. But I think it’s inevitable and it’s going to happen no matter how hard they try to avoid it.
How is your Olympics-watching experience going?
You may have caught some of the Olympic Games over the weekend, most likely in front of your television set and not online.
Just three years ago, she was one of “three chicks with credit cards” trying to form a consortium of female bloggers.
Now, former CNN journalist Lisa Stone is championing a network of 2,200 blogs in a fresh strategic partnership with iVillage …
Sometimes you wonder how the folks at NBC Universal get anything accomplished, when they seem totally unable to accept responsibility for the market challenges they face and demand that everyone else fix NBC Universal’s business-model problems. Remember, NBC Universal has been the main supporter of the idea that ISPs should be responsible for stopping any unauthorized transfer of content. But why take chances on having just one outside party prop up your business model? Now, NBC Universal’s “chief digital officer,” George Kliavkoff, is saying that it should be Apple’s responsibility to stop unauthorized usage by building special antipiracy filters into iTunes.
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