Just a few days before stepping down as CEO of NBC Universal after nearly 25 years with the company, Jeff Zucker responded to questions at the NATPE Conference posed by his brother-in-law, Michael Nathanson of Nomura Securities. Although he cautiously avoided comments on controversial topics such as the resignation (?) of MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, Zucker's valedictory observations are relevant and important.
"Content is what matters," emphasized Zucker. "Investing in great content wherever it is, is important." Backing it up, Zucker pointed to USA Network, which will have 12 original series next season, up from three a few years ago. More original content is slated for every NBCU owned network, and while he acknowledged the primetime challenges to NBC-TV, he stressed that "content is not just entertainment, but also live news and sports." Retransmission consent value generated by network owned and affiliated stations from cable operators is based more on news and sports programming that's viewed live and that has no back-end online exploitation, he argued. "Broadcast audiences are much larger [than cable] and we should be at the top of the retrans rate card," he said. "There's no more important brand in our entire culture than the NFL."
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