NBCU, the entertainment division of General Electric (NYSE: GE), is one of the units that Wall Street wants the conglomerate to dump. Maybe shareholders would be better off if it hangs around.

Some analysts thought GE would sell NBCU after it had gotten a big profit from its rights to the Olympics in Beijing. TV advertising is being hurt by the economy. But, the network has delivered again with record sales for the Super Bowl. According to the AP, "NBC said on the eve of Sunday's Super Bowl that it has sold the last two of the 67 advertising spots for the game, pushing total ad revenue for the event to a record $206 million."

Continue reading GE (GE): NBC pays its way with Super Bowl sales record

GE (GE): NBC pays its way with Super Bowl sales record originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CBS (NYSE:CBS) has watched the success of Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube and Hulu.com, a creation of NBCU and wants in on the action.

According to the FT, to create its portal, "CBS has added content from partners including Sony, Endemol, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor and PBS, to TV.com, the site it acquired in the $1.8bn takeover last year of CNET Networks, the technology web site operator."

Jack Welch used to say that it was not worth being in a business unless you can have the No.1 or No.2 spot. CBS may disagree to its own peril.

The broadcast company may feel that people are willing to go to any number of site to view video. That is probably not true. According to comScore, CBS is not in the top ten video sites visited by consumers. Most of the other big media companies are on the list. That means CBS would have to jump over a number of its competitors to be viable in the online video business. Those competitors are not likely to sit on the sidelines and allow another party into sector.

CBS has been one of the least successful media companies over that last year, especially based on it stock price. That may be because it has been slow to create an Internet strategy. Now it is adopting the position that "if we build it, they will come." It doesn't work that way.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

CBS want to create video portal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every once in a while Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) comes along with a new feature that grabs the attention of bloggers. Today's is Google Trends -- which ranks search terms based on their growth in popularity during the day.

In case you missed it, according to lostremote, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC Universal launched an initiative last October: NBCU 2.0 -- a cost-cutting program designed to eliminate 700 jobs and $750 million in expenses by the end of 2008.

Two of the top Google Trends -- Stone Phillips (#1) and John Seigenthaler (#14) -- account for two of the highest profile 700 job cuts. Phillips is a co-host of Dateline and although I never watch the show, I remember his neck as being particularly frightening. Phillips will not be replaced. Meanwhile, Seigenthaler, who left last month, used to host the NBC Nightly News on weekends -- Lester Holt replaced him.

I hope these cost cuts improve NBCU's profitability, but there's a danger that they'll lead to revenue declines that exceed the cost cuts. Meanwhile Google's advertising revenues -- up 63% -- are growing while NBCU's shrank 22% (due, among other things, to the absence of 2007 programming to take up the slack from the 2006 Olympics and its weak ratings).

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns General Electric stock and has no financial interest in Google.

Google Trends: NBCU 2.0's casualties originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 May 2007 20:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.