NBC’s Executive Shuffle
By J. Max Robins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/19/2006 7:00:00 PM
Tales of turmoil in the executive suites at 30 Rock reached a crescendo last week with the departure of two key players and rumblings about an imminent exit for NBC Universal (NBCU) Chairman Bob Wright. With NBC finally showing signs of reversing a long slide, the timing couldn’t be worse.
The company was already in the middle of executing a layoff-laden $750 million in cuts when NBCU Television Group President Randy Falco left last week to become chairman/CEO of AOL.
The next day, David Zaslav, NBCU’s president of cable and new media divisions, was named the new CEO of Discovery Communications. Now, the company is bracing itself for a shuffling of the executive deck that could determine its course for years to come.
No sooner did word of Falco’s departure surface than did the New York Post report that Wright, who has led the company for an amazing 20 years, could be replaced by heir-apparent Jeff Zucker by the end of the year.
While that timetable is unlikely, it’s no secret that Wright’s senior lieutenants have been urging his boss, GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, to put a succession plan in place sooner rather than later. An announcement that Wright will step down—and NBCU TV Group CEO Zucker will step up—could come perhaps as early as first quarter 2007.
Naturally, NBC tried to downplay the high-profile departures. The official word was that Falco would not be replaced and that the various departments reporting to him would be split among the existing management team.
Meanwhile, who would inherit Zaslav’s former fiefdom wasn’t clear, at least not publicly. Zucker is said to be captaining a senior-management restructuring effort, a scant year after another such reshuffling of divisions took place.
Several key executives could see their turf grow within the NBCU empire, including USA Network/Sci Fi Channel President Bonnie Hammer and NBCU Cable Entertainment, Digital Content and Cross-Network Strategy President Jeff Gaspin.
Speculation abounds that a larger management role could be carved out for NBCU Digital Media & Market Development President Beth Comstock, who had worked side by side with Immelt at GE and may now pick up Zaslav’s digital portfolio.
However, some inside NBC speculate that Comstock may be hurt by the acquisition of iVillage she engineered for $600 million, which Immelt has since conceded was probably a bit too steep for the women-oriented Website.
Comstock also has clashed with several NBC executives (including the departing Falco), who view her return to the company in a much more senior position than the one she left as an intrusion by GE and an affront to their boys' club.
And there’s talk of other high-profile defections, including speculation that NBC’s head of ad sales, Keith Turner, may follow his former boss and close friend Falco to AOL.
All this tumult comes at a time when the broadcast part of the business is beginning to show some signs of a turnaround. Primetime numbers have improved. Even though the bulk of the ratings bump comes from loss-leader Sunday Night Football, there’s a sense that NBC is back on brand, if not on budget, with more quality programming. Most of its cable properties, from Bravo to USA Network, are doing well, too.
But if those running the show are preoccupied by all the uncertainty, that momentum will be tough to sustain.
E-mail comments to bcrobins@reedbusiness.com
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