Dr. Sybril Bennett

Editor’s note: the post below was reprinted with permission from Dr. Sybril Bennett, a Vanderbilt educated, Harvard trained, two-time Emmy award-winning multimedia journalist, from her Multimedia Maven blog.  We thank her for the contribution.

The Comcast NBC Universal deal is done. The ink isn’t dry but of course, the stain is already visible. Yet another huge media consolidation so close after the divorce of AOL and Time Warner. For most people, the new arrangement won’t have much impact unless, Comcast raises their rates once again. This would be an extremely short-sighted strategy. Given the massive financial success of iTunes, it is amazing that other companies would not replicate this model. Comcast Universal (the name I’m giving them for now) could yield huge profits if they would lower the barrier of entry and make their services more affordable to more people. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom dictates that they will exploit the opportunity and potentially alienate subscribers forcing them to flee to Hulu, Netflix, iTunes or to the Internet in general.

As for diversity, please, most industries do not understand basic biology. When biodiversity is compromised, species die. It’s just that plain and simple. Just ask Bill Nye, the science guy. This is America’s tragedy, we are among the most diverse populations in the world, yet we do not know how to leverage that cultural wisdom. Corporations that understand balance are doing better than those that do not. Comcast Universal needs to be responsible and present a sustainable model for the future. To learn more about what different media companies own, visit the Columbia Journalism Review’s “Who Owns What” site.

With that said, to Comcast’s credit, their revenue model is far more feasible than the major broadcast networks. Since television’s inception in the 1940s and 1950s, ABC, NBC and CBS have primarily depended on advertising dollars to sustain their business. It was beyond shortsighted to depend on one revenue stream. (Hint, if you only have one source of income in your house, you are not the brightest bulb in the bunch either.) Comcast generates revenue from subscriptions, advertising, pay per view, On Demand and a myriad of other sources. As long as they don’t exploit the pay for play or itemize their audience into obscurity, they should be able to maintain. More industries need to understand this concept and diversify their portfolio.

I was pleased to see that Comcast understands that the audience wants what they want, when, where and how they want it. If only the movie industry would finally stop promoting a film and release it on the spot on iTunes, Netflix, in theaters, on DVD, on mobile devices, etc that would severely undercuts piracy. But I digress.

If you’ve read this far, you are very committed and interested. Many people don’t have or take the time or the attention span to focus for any length of time. So here’s your reward. Comcast’s new position is an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Don’t focus on the negative, focus on the positive. What opportunities are now available. If I am an aspiring artist, producer, director or writer with an innovative idea that will reach emerging markets, I am getting in position to present my ideas to Comcast now. HBO is the clear leader (”It’s not TV, it’s HBO) in its field. Comcast needs to be prepared to forage for it’s own survival in a landscape that has been shaped by HBO. In order to do that, they will need an infusion of fresh water, new ideas, new voices and a new paradigm.

In the end, it really doesn’t boil down to the survival of the fittest, it is the survival of the richest and that doesn’t just mean money anymore. And now Comcast has an arsenal, let’s see if they shoot blanks or bullets.

When the case of the White House party crashers first broke it was clear that there was enough blame to go around.

The evening started, by all accounts, as a resounding success. Reports were glowing. The event was held in a heated outdoor tent instead of the state dining room so it could accommodate the 300 guests. Every effort, from the decor to the menu to the choice of designer for the First Lady’s gown, was made to appeal to the sensibilities of the Indian head of state who was the guest of honor and to showcase the cultural sensitivities of the “Obama Brand” and the sensibilities of the person who coined that very phrase, Desiree Rogers, the White House Social Secretary.

You know the Obama brand, don’t you? Sensitive. Inclusionary. Innovative.

Enter Mr and Mrs Salahi. You surely know the Salahis by now, don’t you?

A reckless fat guy with a vapid skinny wife, the sort of cartoon couple you might see (and should only see) on Family Guy, crashed  not only the Fist Family’s first state dinner but crashed head on with the (not particularly unfair) caricature of the entire Obama administration: ambitious, ineffectual and increasingly insular.

I’m sure you’re pretty caught up on all of the above shenanigans from print and online sources which kept breaking relevant details of the story: Time, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The New York Times, for example. Just in case you’re not, click on the links above at your leisure.

It didn’t become apparent to me until I saw the insanely inspired and side splittingly hilarious  opening skit of “Saturday Night Live”, that NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC and Bravo, should be as closely scrutinized for the Salahi debacle as the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and Desiree Rogers.

Why was the Secret Service so careless that a bleach blond in a red sari–think about that–could pass herself off as a credible guest without an invitation? Why was Homeland Security so thoughtless about the event, especially since the head of state with a nuclear arsenal and an enemy of Pakistan(which harbors Al Queda terrorists) was the guest of honor? The Social Secretary of the White House is immune form testifying before Congress simply because she is the close friend of and a top fundraiser for the President? (“Heck of a job, Brownie.”) Was the financially strapped peacock network and its partners simply covering a news story or complicating matters by working behind the scenes to create it and benefit from it?

Since NBC regularly and seamlessly promotes the stars and personalities of its cable enterprises as guests and authorities on its network programming like “The Today Show” and “The Jay Leno Show,” was it doing the same with the Salahis?

Could it be that the same week we learned that Tiger was a cheetah, the  NBC peacock was playing a game of cat and mouse?

Mrs Salahi, you will recall, is an aspiring applicant for the lowbrow upscale Bravo franchise “The Real Housewives” and was being filmed by the producers of the series the entire day of the state dinner, from her trip to the hairdresser to the actual event.

The morning after, Peter Jennings, an invited guest at the dinner, came on “The Today Show” via phone to report that he personally saw the Salahis get turned away from the first checkpoint and that he thought it curious  and conspicuous that a camera crew was in tow with the crashers.

After it was revealed that the crew that followed the Salahis was indeed from “The Real Housewives of D.C.” version, Bravo insisted that it had no idea that the Salahis were not on the guest list, something that in retrospect is difficult to swallow, since even Mrs Salahi’s hairdresser asked to see her copy of the invitation. The fact that she could produce no invitation set off an alarm with her hairdresser but not with the producers, whose job–and sole superiority to the subject matter–is to manufacture drama and recognizable desperation from mindless housewives?

In order to deflect any further criticism, Bravo added that the the cast of the show had not been finalized, which meant that the Salahis weren’t really on the show and Bravo wasn’t really doing anything wrong.

Fast forward a bit and the Salahis, it was announced, would appear on “Larry King Live” –notably, not an NBC property–on Monday to explain themselves before it was announced that they would not because they were seeking payment for their appearance on any news medium.

Curiously, they wound up on NBC’s “The Today Show” being interviewed, with much hype, by Matt Lauer who, if you watch the interview, treats them with such reverence, you’d swear they were the grieving parents of a dead war hero.

When he discovers that the “unexpected turn” of information that they had promised to reveal to him overnight(!) was not forthcoming(?) he then asks them to declare they have not made any financial deal with the network and that they are not being payed in any way for their appearance on “The Today Show.”

Mrs Salahi, looking substantially less glamorous than she did in her red sari and only slightly less vacuous than she does on her Facebook page, made sure  to proclaim that they had neither  “the audacity or the poor behavior” to crash the White House, but when pressed by Mr Lauer to reveal who had invited them, they had both the audacity and the poor behavior to evade the question altogether.

“White House party crashers break their silence” read the caption under Tuesday’s “Today Exclusive,” and the party crashing Mr Salahi revealed that this characterization has been “the most devastating thing that has ever happened to us.”

Really?

By Saturday night they were  being spoofed on Saturday Night Live as deliciously good crashers of a presidential news conference. What made them so pitch perfect for the skit–and quite frightening in real life– was precisely that they were not playing themselves but because they were being themselves, audacity and poor behavior in tow, yet again.

Didn’t  the obnoxious fame seekers get what they really wanted: a guaranteed 15 minutes of fame engineered by NBC and a certain casting on Bravo now that SNL has made it possible for them to seem like affable goofballs and not dangerous fabulists?

Do you really think that after all of this, Bravo is going to take a pass on the empty headed “balloon boy” blond, the most desperate of desperate housewives?

Just make sure you tune in.

And perhaps the Obama administration, whose policy speech on the Afgan war was completely overshadowed by the Salahi battle of the nitwits, should tune in long enough to stop accusing Fox News of not being a legitimate news organization– we already know it’s not.

Even the appearance of impropriety on the part of NBC Universal in rewarding the Salahis for their audacity and poor behavior will surely encourage others of this ilk .

This week ABC showed the power a network can exercise in influencing behavior. After Adam Lambert added sexual and controversial elements to his live performance on The American Music Awards that he did not include in his rehearsals, ABC canceled his concert on “Good Morning America,” his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rocking Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” For future live telecasts all performers will have to sign agreements that their performances will adhere to the content presented during the rehearsals. Take note Adam. Over at NBC, the Salahis un/scripted and dangerous reality is more than welcome any time of the day and night.

TheBestDressedList.com

TomKolovos.com

Brian Roberts Comcast
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, is hoping for a positive result from the regulatory process. Comcast has made the biggest deal of the corporate industry and.

Brian Roberts Comcast
In 1963, Comcast was founded by Ralph Roberts along with Daniel Aaron and Julian Brodsky. In the US, the company is the largest provider of cable.

The Real Reason Brian Roberts Is Buying NBC – Nbc – Gizmodo
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BreakinG NewS:
Fred Vidal, alias Mike FULLER, Is Already Officially FRED KELLY For AFTRA In Hollywood, New Professional Name!

Fred VIDAL WriteS To JournalistS: I Will Marry ‘AMERICA’ (a Surname!) Next Year, As SILLY, My  MusiC OrienteD DVD AccesSes The REcorD IndustrY, NexT WeeK!

The PRESS RELEASE Text Communique Is Not Finished And In Progress, With Possible Upgrades On TWITTER FV, Today Satuday And Tomorrow Sunday. Enjoy This Live Development Of A Success Story!!

http://twitter.com/fredvidal

TEXT AS POST At 10:08am This Saturday!
(have a great weekend!)

A Personal Message From Fred VIDAL, PhD To The American And International PRESS, From Los Angeles, CA, Now, ON VOX!! To Be Diffused By Emails And Faxes To Selection 500 Journalists (or less_ During MontH Of DECEMBER 2009!

The Release Of A DVD Of The Best Songs Of Fred VIDAL On YoutuBe Is The First step Of a Diffusion Of His Music To Record Companies And the Population Of Los Angeles, And New York, Before A Commercial Distribution On The Internet Of The Concept-Album FV IN LA. On Youtube, The Hit Of HeRe CoMeS ThE NiGhT Cover (A sonG written By VaN MORRISON In the 60’s, revisited By FV In A Metal-Pub Rock Way) Is a GooD SuRprise (400 Views In December, in 4 Weeks). http://www.youtube.com/bramstocker77 Fred VIDAL Began his Career In The Rock Industry In 1977 With punk Rock Band BRAMSTOCKER In Nice, French Riviera (the Movie-Music Entrepreneur Is an American Citizen since 2006, After IMMIGRATION In 2003, following 1990’s Sessions Of Work In New York and personal Visits in Washington, DC For Preparation Insertion In The UniteD StateS and Writing PhD In Semiotics/Media Studies). On TWITTER, Fred Shares With 1,800 Followers His TWEETS Mixing Social Science, SciFi Scripts Plot Contents (F-COP: Aftermath NOVEL In Progress On His WordPress BloG, After Success e-Novel ThE MaN WiTh ThE VelVeT EyEs Since Last SprinG). http://fredvidal.wordpress.com

GOSSIP GIRL, An Example That Must Be Followed In The TV And Movie Industry, As The American Entertainment Business Is Not Enough Focusing On The Sale Of Films And TV-Shows DVDs, Preferring To Boost The Rent/Location Of Them! BUY A DVD Of GossiP GirL, If you Want To Admire The Quality Of The ShoW And Know Better Why Fred VIDAL, PhD Is A Fan Of This Series And A Personal Fanatic Of The Lead Character and The Actress Blake Lively.

A LinK To Share With The GG Universe:
www.gossipgirl.net

FV IN LA Is A SignaL Of Fred VIDAL ComeBack In The MUSIC INDUSTRY! The young Actor (since 2003) Is Back To The Sets Since Last Summer (IRON MAN 2, HEROES, THE GREEN HORNET, CHUCK, EASTWICK TV-Shows, some more) For XTRA-TIME evaluation Of His Preparation Of ACTING Career In HollywooD As President Of TIMEFFRAMES ( A ThinK SmarT CLUB For The AmericaN FILM INDUSTRY Empowerment And Improvement InTo 2010’s Developemt Of The After-Crisis Era For Entertainment In The United States). A Book-Post of His Acting Memories, ‘From Spielberg To Eastwood, My Acting Work In Hollywood’, Is scheduled This Month on The Web (Fred VIDAL worked As A Day-Time Player, for non-speaking roles mostly, with Dozens of important actors, directors, producers of The American Film Industry, like Martin SHEEN, On THE WEST WING, Katie HOLMES, for his first day on a set in 2003, For BASTILLE Day, Jennifer ANISTON,  Ashton KUTCHER in Valentine’s Day, Photo-Double Of Steve CARELL In The Office’s NBC TV-Show, a lot more). With Clint EATWOOD, Director, He Played Humphfrey BOGART, In a Scene Of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.

Fred’s In A Process Of Development-Reorganization Of His MOVIE ActivitY In HollywoodLanD, LA With Dissolution Project Of LimitED Liability COMPANY FRENCH COP And Creation Partnership TIMEFRAMES In Hollywood, A CluB-Work, Semi-Commercial, That Could Be The Next Step Of HIS START-UP StrateGy StoppeD By Lake Of Synergies-Solidarity In His NETWORKING Work 2005-2009 (Chambers of commerce, Business and Mixer Organizations). Vidal’s Didn’t Succeed To Stay Full-Time Producer As His Screenwriting Work, At the Same Time, Got A Spectacular Success On The Internet, With More 350,000 Readers Of His Blog-Newspaper On WORDPRESS, http://fredvidal.wordpress.com

Regarding His Musical Inspiration And Movie

Great PIC: RED CARPET Complex Mag + Harley Davidson EVENT Hollywood CA - 17.10.07 Credit: Rachel Worth /WENN! Fred VIDAL, David HASSELHOFF, Alicia ARDEN, Great Actress And The Public Relations Of Fred VIDAL from 2007 to 2008, for more Than a Couple Of Months, And A Friend!

Orientation Of Career And PersonaL Life, Fred VIDAL Is… (writinG ContinueS in a moment, STAY TUNED!!)

2nd PART: CORPORATE ROOM And ‘AMERICA’ I LoVe YoU FOREVER!, 3rd Part In Line For Online THIS AFTERNOON, SAT, Before 6pm pt, BeginninG Is ScheduleD!

Regarding His Musical Inspiration And Movie Orientation Of Career And PersonaL Life, Fred VIDAL Is Focusing On More With The Creation Of TIMEFRAMES, A THINK SMART CluB (MottO: Ready For The Best), Created For A Brainstoorming About The Future Of Hollywood, A Nation In Crisis, A Nation Inside The Nation, The American One, With A Community That is a Family and An Identity, A population Of Actors, Movie Producers And Directors, Screenwriters. What Future For Them? A Crisis Or An Anti-Crisis Era With The Happening of The 2010’s? TIMEFRAMES Thinks that The Problem Of MGM Future (With UNITED ARTISTS That could Be a Solution To produce More movies for Young Talents of The Industry) and The Negotiations In progress Between NBC And COMCAST (explained daily In The Local DAILY NEWS as A Crucial Matter For The LA County) Are Emblematic Of a World That chages, even if it’s sometimes in chaotic Way. So Let’s Choose The Best Attitude With a Debate, and No more Strikes that Kill progress, that TIMEFRAMES Proposes As a Mixer-Concept (An invitation To be Sent to Hollywood Insiders for an Orientation Party In Hollywoodland, In December the 13.

Last But Not Least, Fred VIDAL Is ThinkinG about The personal Success Of Hiss professional Life In a Corporate but Private too Environment, in a Context where Celebrities Are Involved In Public Media. He will Be next year In a Process Of Developing His Life To Build A Family, hoping To give You GOOD NEWS About That, Soon Too. It’s the responsability Of actors and public Figures to Express themselves About their Life, without ambiguity and Miscommunication. This Program Has A Name: AMERICA as Fred’s Love Surname Is The One Of Our COUNTRY, The United States.

Thank you.

This text is a Project/Draft and Will be updated and Upgraded, Tomorrow SUNDAY, December 6. 2009.

by Kenneth Klee, for The Deal, December 3, 2009.

The structure of the NBC Universal joint venture announced Thursday morning by General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) and Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is a tribute to modern dealcraft. Resources are redeployed, capital is redirected, and myriad contingencies are anticipated. General Electric’s deal team has been boning up on alternative deal structures for at least a year now, and it shows.

But leave it to former NBCU chief Bob Wright to look past the elegant design and get to the heart of the challenge that awaits beyond regulatory review and closing. “It’s going to be a management challenge when one party is looking to grow and the other party is looking to get out,” says Wright, who nevertheless thinks the deal is good for both sides.

No kidding. Interests can be hard enough to align in a JV when both parties are looking to expand in a new field or reduce back-office costs or make common cause on some other front. This JV is a multiyear handoff of a complex bundle of assets in a fast-changing industry. Certainly GE wants to preserve and even increase value on its way out the door. The trick will be reconciling GE’s desire to take capital out with Comcast’s need to invest and act quickly on opportunities and threats that will surely arise…(continue reading)

Cable giant Comcast has purchased a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion, giving the nation’s largest cable TV operator control of the NBC network, including broadcast, internet, cable channels and a major movie studio.
This will change the media and entertainment landscape forever. It has the potential to speed the time from theater to other platforms. It also begs the question: How will this affect satetlite TV as cable’s leading competitor?
Does this give Comcast too much power?

Indeed, when the deal clears regulatory and other hurdles, Comcast would rival the heft of The Walt Disney Co. – this means Comcast CEO Brian Roberts can give up trying to buy Disney.

Comcast, who delivers cable to a quarter of all U.S. households that pay for TV gains control of the NBC broadcast network, the Spanish-language Telemundo and about two dozen cable channels, including USA, Syfy and The Weather Channel. It also gets internet media properties, regional sports networks, Universal Pictures and theme parks.

In agreeing to buy 51 percent of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. (GE), The company succeeds in combining distribution and content in a next generation way. They would be wise not to follow the Time-Warner model. Time Warner is undoing their cable and content combination. Time Warner has already jettisoned its cable TV operations.

Comcast made the deal because it is eager to be a much bigger player in media and entertainment while adding more breadth to its portfolio. The threats from online video and more aggressive competition from satellite and phone companies that offer subscription TV services was very real and scary to them.

For entertainment viewers, we are not sure what this means. There is no question that it will not slow down the fast paced movement to media and entertainment everywhere, anytime on any capable device.
Comcast will probably continue and expand letting subscribers watch cable TV shows online.

The problem we all worry about is that the consuming public could end up paying more for TV.
In the new Media and Entertainment world order Comcast, subscription-TV operators like DirecTV and Verizon Communications Inc.’s FiOS service would be negotiating with a direct rival on how much they pay to carry NBC Universal’s cable and broadcast channels. This can not be good for consumers. Fees are already creeping up. In some segments of our economy and unfortunately more and more, cable has simply become unaffordable.

As she prepared her daughter for college, Anne Sweeney insisted that a television be among the dorm room accessories.

“Mom, you don’t understand. I don’t need it,” her 19-year-old responded, saying she could watch whatever she wanted on her computer, at no charge.

What happens when you cross this:

With this?:

Answer? You get this:

ANNNNNNNNND this:

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Oh ho ho, that movie will be good based on the cast alone. Casting WIN! The above is payback for my recent unexcused absense. Though I will now try to further excuse it. It has been a BUUUUUUUUUUUUSY last two weeks, boys and girls. No excuse for blog-laziness, I know, but still, its been crazers these past few weeks. That being said, time for shway updates!  SHWAYDATES!  Copyright! Here is a quick list of randomness I have found around the internets that is incredibly wunderbar.

The /Filmcast: After Dark has a wonderful discussion about film criticism and whether it is a dead/dying/overtaken by noobs art. Spoiler alert for  Children of Men, American Psycho, and Blade Runner.  Blade Runner? Really?

/Filmcast After Dark Ep. 77

Cinematical has a pretty spiffy article about the ability of gay actors to openly come out of the closet and what it will mean to their career in the long run. The article focuses on Rupert Everett, which is a shame, because Everett is known in the community as a whiny, narcissistic, troublemaker and giving him any agency to represent the LGBT community is a bad idea. Make sure to read the comments below the article, as well.

Cinematical

Sundance is coming up and indieWire has a decent account of the action that is in the works.

indiWire

Though it was published over two years ago, I stumbled upon a pretty great little article on /Film that had an excellent little spiel about the proliferation of promising directors from the late 90’s and what the hell actually happened to them. Short, yet to the point, the article ponders what factors are contributing to this general content malaise and what can be done to prevent it. Funny that two years later we just now seem to be getting back to a formidable level of content across the board, rather than just waiting anxiously for the next Pixar or Superhero franchise.  Which I wouldn’t have a problem with if they each released 2 films a month.

Vintage /Film!

And finally, ANOTHER /Film article (I just love them so much) written by the always-well-versed Hunter Stephenson. A new futures trading market named the Cantor Exchange is attempting to soon go public. The Cantor Exchange will be the first system to trade futures on box office gross’. /Film has a very well written and interesting article on what this overt commoditization will have on the entertainment industry and the art of filmmaking itself.

/Film

ANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD in smaller news…

_Zombieland 2 has been greenlit

_Justin Timberlake will star in the story of Facebook, The Social Network.

_Alec Baldwin insists that after 30 Rock he’s done acting. Personally? Not such a bad thing.

_Robert Duvall MAY be Don Quixote in Gilliam’s re-attempt at the tale.

_Spielberg drops his remake of Harvey.

_Oh, and did I mention that Comcast bought NBC Universal? No biggie, just wanted to put that out there…

political cartoons

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     It wasn’t long before the deal was done. NBC has continuously placed last in network ratings, in large part because of a hefty risk. Now, the once powerful, dignified company has lost some luster. Earlier today, General Electric has agreed to sell NBC Universal to the cable giant Comcast, who will have majority stake in the new entity, Comcast Entertainment. This will all be finalized barring the deal passes regulatory review by federal agencies.

     Comcast will add to its collection of cable channels with a film studio and theme park to boot. And, in effect, they may soon be swimming in a swath of cash. Many of its original and new channels bring in substantial amounts of revenue. Comcast not only poses a threat now to fellow cable giants, but also the conglomerates it can go toe to toe with.

     Think about this: Comcast already reaches 27 million homes. With NBC in its grip, it will now reach almost double at 48 million. Cable was and still is its forte. Add Internet service and broadcasting, and what do you have? You have the production AND distribution of both news AND entertainment content.

     Just imagine if you couldn’t watch your favorite show because you don’t have Comcast. If you had to pay to watch Hulu. If you had to pay more as a Comcast customer because Comcast charges other cable companies to more to have its content.

     Sooner or later, now matter what media-related situation you’re in, Comcast could always be in the picture. Just imagine.

In a society where media convergence is the name of the game, Comcast takes the game to a whole new level. The Philadelphia-based cable corporation made a $30 billion deal today with General Electric Company to acquire NBC Universal Studios.

This deal, which will unite America’s largest cable TV provider with the nation’s fourth highest ranked broadcast network, offers endless possibilities for the future. Intertwining cable television, broadcast television, internet, telecommunications and the film industry, the new corporation has the makings of a monster multimedia conglomerate.

Comcast executives have not yet announced any specific plans for change. But changes are sure to take place in about 18 months, once the deal is finalized.

The acquisition of NBC Universal could provide Comcast with an opportunity to expand on its sports coverage and compete with ESPN.

Or the new corporation could revolutionize the news industry by eliminating the broadcast network entirely and creating a cable- and internet-based news network.

Not to mention, the internet service and telecommunications provided by Comcast give it an additional advantage. The all-in-one phone, internet and television package deal Comcast offers will keep its customers hooked regardless of any changes it makes to the television industry.

For now, NBC Universal will keep its name and will continue to operate out of its New York headquarters. But over the next few years, who knows?

This blending of two major multimedia outlets could redefine media completely.

So Comcast has bought control of NBC Universal. BFD! What did they gain for the $30 Billion pricetag put on the company? Exclusive rights to NBC Universal content? No. A high growth business in broadcasting, movies and cable networks? No.

Cable networks like Comcast, leveraged to the gills with junk bonds are like sharks. Feed or die–which translates to grow top line revenue or die. Their internal Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is relatively flat and almost everyone in their markets who wants cable has it, so they live by deals. But Brian Roberts might have talked to Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner, who just sold off Time Warner Cable and AOL, about the magical synergy between content and pipe. It doesn’t exist!

The value destruction in the media Mergers and Acquisition business is mind-boggling.

As for GE, which unloaded NBC, it’s a good move. Now they can get back to their core business of manufacturing the infrastructure elements that will help rebuild America.

Those fretting that Comcast will immediately and drastically close theatrical windows once it takes over NBC Universal should take a breath.

Yes, Comcast has been a leading proponent of video on demand, and would like to shorten the theatrical window AND the cable window. But now it will have a big stake in the content creation side as well. And one thing studio execs do NOT want to do is diminish the much larger revenue streams from exhibition and homevideo sales.

Rather, they are engaged in a delicate balancing act, trying to adjust to consumer demand for content in home more quickly while also protecting established revenue streams.  (For more on this, read my Variety story from last week here.)

Brian Roberts is not a digital revolutionary. He is, by all accounts, a button-down businessman who wants more control over his company’s destiny. And that he will have control over both sides of the equation. Will he push for premium VOD ahead of disc releases? Probably.

But he’s not the only one interested in that: Several other studios also favor the notion; the MPAA is pushing the FCC for a waiver that would enable them to better control transmission of their movies into TV sets.

Another prediction: Look for further shortening of standard homevideo/VOD windows on big hits to around three months, rather than four. Already we’re seeing signs of that from Paramount, and Bob Iger recently reiterated the need to get movies to consumers sooner, when they are still perceived as fresh, and therefore desirable. The studios have been testing VOD windows and how they affect DVD sales for some time.

But more than one studio honcho believes that DVD sales will bounce back once the economy does. The last thing they want to do is damage that high-margin business with low-cost VOD alternatives.

The reality is likely to be more prosaic than doomsday scenarios.  This is not, Rafat Ali observes in paidContent, a digital play. Nor is Roberts a reckless conglomerator like Charles Bluhdorn, yawns Peter Bart, who worked for the latter at Paramount.

But make no mistake: Roberts does indeed have his eye on the future.

UPDATE: A few more observations: Steve Burke told analysts yesterday that Comcast would indeed play around with VOD windows, the LAT reports. But I still maintain that the company will tread carefully around the theatrical window, and not just offer movies significantly earlier at the same VOD price we’re used to today.

That could indeed “do serious damage to its studio and the film business generally,” as Kim Masters frets in the Daily Beast.

Burke sounded a pragmatic note, telling analysts that there are “a lot of opportunities out there,” but added, “obviously not all of them are going to work.”

Also intriguing: The effect the acquisition will have on streaming windows. Networks are also experimenting with streaming windows, delaying the streaming of certain programs to try and force viewers to watch during primetime. And there’s growing tension between network brass and Hulu, the popular streaming site jointly owned by NBC and Fox. Read more about the impact of the Comcast deal on web streaming in Brian Stelter’s front-page NYT story.

The NBC peacock sits proudly on the network's headquarters in Burbank, Calif. Cable giant Comcast acquired a controlling stake in the network in an estimated $37-billion deal. (Sipa via AP Images)

As Jonathan and I discussed in TechStuff Live Tuesday, Comcast has officially purchased a controlling interest in NBC Universal from General Electric. There are many things people have discussed as potential problems, and I’m sure they’ll come up during the FCC’s review of the deal. Comcast will have to reassure everyone that the company won’t promote NBC Universal networks at the expense of other channels. It may have to divest itself of some television stations before the deal can go forward.

And then there’s the whole movie distribution thing. Comcast will be asked if it intends to leverage its control of Universal Studios pictures to hurt its competitors. Diane Mermigas wrote on BNET earlier this week that Comcast has been a big proponent of video-on-demand services and the company could possibly release movies simultaneously at the box office and on demand to create the largest possible market for films.

Another issue is how this deal is going to affect online TV viewing. Hulu, a streaming video site that offers TV shows and movies for free use, is a venture in which Fox and NBC are both involved. Fox is part of News Corp., which has already been suggesting it wants to see a paid tier of content on the site. Mermigas said Comcast may very well push Hulu to start charging site users, as well. But Comcast already has its own streaming video service, which is called Fancast. In addition, it’s also been working on another service, called TV Everywhere. CNET’s Greg Sandoval wrote this morning that Comcast executives said the company is planning on participating in both ventures.

Ryan Singel, writing in the Epicenter blog at Wired.com, wrote that Massachusetts representative Edward J. Markey has already said that he’s concerned about possible limitations to customer choice. Considering this news hits on the day of the deal itself, I expect more voices will join Singel’s to express their own concerns.

But Mermigas suggested there could be other changes in store. She said she thinks the FCC could use the deal as a possible starting point for deregulating the broadcast industry. That could have massive consequences for TV viewers, no matter where they watch.

It’s early in this game, so it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen, but given the mood of other bloggers I’ve read, no one expects Comcast to rest on its laurels if this deal goes through.

For more on some of these topics, take a look at these articles:

How Television Works
How Cable TV Works
How Hulu Works

Arlington, Virginia - 12/3/2009

The 2010 International CES today announced an expanded lineup of entertainment technology attractions to address growing demand from Hollywood and the content community for exhibits, conference sessions and show highlights featuring collaboration between the content and technology industries. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2010 International CES, the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology, will be held January 7-10, 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

NBC Universal returns to the CES show floor with a multi-platform content exhibit and will be the official broadcast partner of the 2010 International CES. In addition, CNET/CBS Interactive will exhibit and serve as the official online media partner of the 2010 CES. Sony will join content-focused companies exhibiting at the 2010 International CES, including Dolby, Dreamer, DTS, EchoStar, Roxio, Technicolor and THX.

“The 2010 International CES has a starring role as the must-attend event to experience the latest content distribution platforms and learn strategies for monetizing digital content,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president of events and conferences of CEA. “CES showcases companies and products at the intersection of content and technology, and also offers strategic insights via the great content-focused conference programs at the 2010 CES. It’s the place to be in January for anyone related to the content industry.”

Way back in January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. Actually, AOL bought Time Warner in a stock swap and debt acquisition worth $182 billion. At the time, this created the largest digital media entity anywhere. Oh how the mighty do fall as this relationship has dissolved and AOL is but a shell of it’s great self. 

In November, AOL announced it was cutting 100 jobs initially with up to a total of 1,000 jobs eliminated by the time restructuring was complete. It appears that estimate was even short, as AOL has now said they will cut one-third of its staff, pending approval of a new restructuring plan and the completion of its separation from Time Warner. If approved, approximately 2,500 jobs will be eliminated from AOL’s 6,900 employees. In terms of square feet with empty seats, this is in the neighborhood of 600,000+/- SF.  The next likely step is an announcement on lease cancellations.

On a side note: I wonder, if in 10 years, the Comcast-NBC Universal deal will suffer the same fate. It’s already been tagged as creating ”a media behemoth”.  Of course, that’s provided the deal goes through.

With Comcast (CMCSA) finalizing its deal to buy 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric (GE), skeptics are asking: Why would Comcast CEO Brian Roberts put his faith in Jeff Zucker, the NBCU chief who has dragged the NBC broadcast network from first to fourth place?

Because Jeff Zucker is one of the most determined, driven, ambitious, ingenious, competitive, compelling, resilient people you will ever meet.

Read “Life imitates TV,” a Fortune profile I wrote two years ago.

This is a guy who battled cancer twice. The first time, he was 31. Zucker, who is now 44, used to schedule his chemotherapy sessions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Friday afternoons and then sleep all weekend, so he could work like a maniac at NBC starting on Monday morning.

His cancer recurred two years later. His wife, Caryn, was four months pregnant with their second child. Doctors removed 90% of his colon. Beating cancer, Zucker told me, “prepared me for almost anything.”

When Jack Welch was running GE, he was a Zucker fan. Dick Ebersol, the  influential head of NBC Universal Sports, has long been Zucker’s cheerleader–and his sway endures in this Comcast deal. Most critically, Jeff Immelt, GE’s current chief, has backed Zucker through good times and bad.

Two years ago, when I asked him about Zucker’s failure to prop up the NBC broadcast network, Immelt said: “I really don’t blame Jeff. I don’t accept it, but I don’t blame him.” He noted that Zucker, who has been at NBC for 23 years, inherited aging shows.

Indeed, NBC’s primetime profits, which peaked at $650 million in 2003, have dried up. But what counts more is that Zucker has impressively built NBCU’s cable networks, including CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, and Bravo. Cable, with its dual revenue stream, is the far superior business model and where the big money is today.

Zucker’s decisiveness matters too. Immelt explained to me that he evaluates all his executives on five “growth traits”: inclusiveness, imagination/courage, expertise, external focus, and clear thinking/decisiveness. He rates his execs green, yellow, or red on each trait. Zucker’s “green”–the top–rating? Decisiveness. “He’s cocky. I kind of like that,” Immelt told me, noting that Zucker is “not afraid to make tough calls.”

Zucker’s weakness, in Immelt’s view? “He still has to work on external focus,” he said. Zucker has worked on expanding his vision. Now, with a new guy, Comcast’s Roberts, overseeing NBCU, he’ll have to work on it even more.

General Electric and Comcast announced a joint venture worth a combined $37.25 billion today that will give the cable company eventual control of NBC Universal.

From CNN Money:

In the complex deal, NBC Universal will borrow $9.1 billion from third-party lenders to distribute to parent company General Electric. GE will use that money to buy Vivendi SA’s 20% stake in NBCU for $5.8 billion, clearing a major hurdle in the company’s path to sell control of the entertainment giant to Comcast.

Comcast will pay GE $6.5 billion in cash for the conglomerate’s media unit and will contribute programming and other businesses valued at $7.25 billion, including E!, the Style Network and several cable sports stations. The sale values NBC Universal at $30 billion.

Comcast will take a controlling 51% stake in the joint venture, and GE will control 49%.

NBC is now owned by phone and internet provider, Comcast. With the purchase they are now in control of: NBC, Hulu, USA, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Versus, CNBC, MSNBC, Universal Pictures movie studio, Telemundo, Universal Studios parks, Focus Features, and broadcast rights to the 2012 Olympics.

I think this is a great addition for Comcast. What do you guys think?

Comcast (s CMCSA) and GE (s GE)  officially announced a deal this morning that will merge the entertainment properties of the cable company with NBC Universal, creating a new media behemoth valued at around $30 $37.25 billion.

The venture will be 51 percent owned by Comcast, which is contributing its portfolio of cable networks, such as E!, the Gold Channel, a number of regional sports networks and other digital media properties, all of which are valued at around $7.25 billion. In addition, Comcast will make a payment of $6.5 billion in cash to GE, an amount that is subject to some adjustments between now and close of deal.

GE will own 49 percent of the venture, and will put up the broadcast network, theme parks, movie studio, and cable-television channels of NBC Universal. In order to make the deal work, NBC will borrow approximately $9.1 billion from third-party lenders and distribute the cash to GE.

GE will purchases Vivendi’s (s VIV) 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for $5.8 billion, a price that the companies agreed to earlier this week. As part of that deal, GE has agreed to purchase a  7.66 percent stake of NBC from Vivendi for $2 billion in September 2010, if the Comcast deal is not completed by then. GE would then acquire the remaining 12.34 percent stake of NBC for $3.8 billion when the Comcast deal closes.

Jeff Zucker, current president and CEO of NBC Universal, will be chief executive of the joint venture, reporting to Comcast COO Steve Burke. The new entity will be headquartered in New York, and will have a board of directors that includes three members from Comcast and two from GE.

The companies spent the last nine months negotiating a deal, but now the real fun begins. The deal is expected to face intense scrutiny from government regulators, which will take several months and could wipe out some of the benefits of creating the venture.

Radar InfoMoney:

Enquanto importantes indicadores sobre a economia norte-americana não são divulgadas, as bolsas focam o mercado de commodities e o noticiário corporativo, aproveitando uma manhã de ganhos nesta quinta-feira (3).

O BofA (Bank of America) devolverá os US$ 45 bilhões captados no Tarp (Troubled Asset Relief Program), economizando um total de US$ 3,6 bilhões por ano em custos de dividendos. Já a Comcast concordou em adquirir a NBC Universal por meio de uma joint-venture com a GE, em uma operação que movimentará US$ 37 bilhões.

No mais, fica a espera pela divulgação dos dados da agenda dos EUA. Entre os destaques, estão o ISM Services, que mede o nível de atividade não-industrial de novembro, e o Initial Claims, com o número de pedidos de auxílio-desemprego realizados nos EUA na última semana.

Petrobras e OGX
No noticiário corporativo doméstico, o destaque fica com as petrolíferas do país. A Petrobras (PETR3, PETR4) anunciou na noite passada a assinatura de cinco contratos no valor total de R$ 8,9 bilhões para a construção da Refinaria Abreu e Lima, em Pernambuco, em um projeto em parceria com a Petróleos de Venezuela – PDVSA.

Já a OGX Petróleo (OGXP3) anunciou descoberta da presença de hidrocarbonetos em bloco localizado na parte sul da Bacia de Campos, cuja participação é de 100% da companhia. O poço encontra-se a 77 km da costa do estado do Rio de Janeiro e segue sendo perfurado “em busca de objetivos adicionais”.

Desalavancagem e dívidas
Novos acontecimentos em torno do perfil financeiro das empresas também marcam o noticiário do dia. O Minerva (BEEF3) anunciou a conclusão do processo de cancelamento parcial de notas promissórias com vencimento em 2017, num total de US$ 40,6 milhões do valor de face, parte de sua estratégia de desalavancagem.

Enquanto isto, o Refis – programa de parcelamento de débitos da Procuradoria Geral da Fazenda Nacional e Secretaria da Receita Federal – ganhou novos adeptos: a Iochpe-Maxion (MYPK3) e a Lupatech (LUPA3).

Novos investimentos
Por sua vez, a AmBev (AMBV4) anunciou nesta manhã novos investimentos no Maranhão, que incluem a construção de uma nova unidade de produção e de um CDD (Centro de Distribuição Direta). As obras representam um investimento de R$ 144 milhões, parte do montante de R$ 1,5 bilhão que será investido em 2010 para ampliar em até 10% a capacidade de produção da empresa.

Outra que também anunciou expansão de suas atividades é a Marisa (MARI3). A rede varejista deve inaugurar três novas lojas no País, passando a atuar nas cinco regiões brasileiras.

Encerramento de oferta
Por fim, a Cetip (CTIP3) divulgou o encerramento de sua oferta pública secundária de ações ordinárias, por meio da qual pôde captar R$ 772,99 milhões. Como é de praxe, os estrangeiros foram a grande maioria entre os investidores, representando 96,34% do montante total captado.

There’s a lot of good coverage about yesterday’s news that General Electric has inked a deal with Comcast to sell majority ownership of NBC Universal to Comcast, and it is a very complicated story.   NBC always seemed a strange item for GE’s portfolio, but then, GE is a very large enterprise involved in a lot of things about which the public may be unaware.   It’s probably better that NBC Universal has been one unit among many unrelated businesses with standard performance expectations.   When Comcast gets the keys, NBC Universal will also become a prime strategic asset in a very large enterprise involved in maximizing control over a very large “content pipeline.”

This is an admittedly subjective observation which may not be accurate, but reporting on this deal so far seems to have treated regulatory approval as a formality.   If Wal-Mart decided to buy Proctor & Gamble or another of its largest suppliers, would regulatory approval be a foregone conclusion?  Probably not.

Another question — what is the biggest threat to the long term viability of cable television companies (to say nothing of legacy media companies)?   Our money is on the web upending the entire arrangement.   This is a complex issue which we will explore frequently.   A good place to start when considering all of this is to remember how YouTube begat Hulu and Hulu begat more problems than its creators could anticipate for their walled garden model.    Comcast has a very strong interest in maintaining the status quo in the way television works now and would rather not have a scenario unfold where its ISP business is helping upend its cable television business.   A closed system where one company controls a significant portion of both the content and delivery mechanism and also has massive control over the technology likeliest to threaten that system seems unlikely to promote competition, innovation and quality.

Perhaps the better way to see it is to consider what happens to other industries in their terminal phase — consolidation and decline.   The next time you fly to Europe on Delta, chances are you are flying on a route Delta bought from Pan Am, and if you are flying that route on a Delta 747, chances are you are flying on an airplane Delta acquired from its recent merger with Northwest.   Of course the biggest flaw in this comparison between industries is that you will probably never be able to build your own 747 and fly it to Europe on a route of your own, but you can produce broadcast quality content and get it to an international audience entirely without the assistance of massive multinational media companies.

Vivendi Union Urges Sale of NBC Stake; an agreement would provide Vivendi with as much as $6 billion and allow GE to exit the media business by selling control of NBC Universal to Comcast Corp. (Bloomberg)

BBC iPlayer Had a Record Month in October; the iPlayer attracted an average of 1.1 million users, the highest figure on record. (Broadband TV News)

SeaChange Deploys Dynamic VOD Ad Insertion with Virgin Media; the company’s AdPulse On Demand will be deployed over Virgin Media’s national footprint of 3.7 million digital cable homes. (InteractiveTV Today)

Rovi Will Appeal a High Court Decision That Rendered Its Patents Invalid; the patents covered the display of programs in a grid format, the selection of favorite channels, and recording from the EPG to external devices. (Broadband TV News)

Zappos.com Rolls Out Clickable Product Video; online shoe retailer is testing interactive video on its site for Nike products, using technology from Overlay.tv. (ClickZ)