“Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, is planning to seize on the writers’ strike to eliminate what he sees as extravagances in the way Hollywood makes and promotes television,” Joshua Chaffin reports for The Financial TImes.
Chaffin reports, “NBC and other companies have already used the strike to terminate millions of dollars of long-term production contracts. Mr Zucker is planning to go further by cutting enduring features of the television business, including the pilot season, in which networks develop programmes, and the splashy ‘upfront’ presentations in which they tout them to advertisers. ‘Things like that are all vestiges of an era that’s gone by and won’t return,’ Mr Zucker told the Financial Times.”
Chaffin reports, “Mr Zucker appears to have patched up relations with Apple after a pricing dispute last year led NBC to pull its shows from the iTunes digital media store. ‘We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple,’ he said. ‘We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.'”
Full article (subscription required) here.
Stating the desire to be in business with Apple does not equal “patched up relations.” This may, however, be a sign that Zucker and NBC are beginning to crawl back to Steve Jobs and Apple’s market-dominating iTunes Store.
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day, a U.S. federal holiday. The markets are closed today in the U.S. Many people in the U.S. have the day off. Consequently we expect news to be light, although we do hope to bring you Apple-related news throughout the day.
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Zucker is and always has been an asshole. His network is tanking and so is the stock, so no wonder.
A monkey could have predicted that Zucker would come crawling back.
fm
Librul…
BirdsofaFeather is already WAAAAY out of the Real World. Doubtless, orbiting one asteroid or another…
“We want to be in business with Apple”?
This guy can’t be serious. How does joining with the 2.5% market share losers grow your business? They don’t even have a 2 button mouse. Here is an instance where the Microsoft + Zune + NBC ecosystem can really thrive. You get the coveted hip brand in Microsoft, the fantastic Zune portable media player, and NBC’s awesome content. In fact, Microsoft’s dominant market position and technology developments have them years ahead of the competition. Being in business with Apple would just be a step backward.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I wonder if perhaps the new role assumed by Apple TV as a prospective centerpiece of the digital living room had something to do with it. I mean, if so much will be routed through the “Apple network”, it would be the height of foolishness to let greed and ego on NBC’s part to hold themselves out of the action.
Steve Jobs is a true Capitalist: he recognizes that the way to build a brand is through quality, not slogans. Henry Ford saw that if he was going to sell his cars, his workers needed to be able to afford them.
On the other hand, most of the people calling themselves conservatives or capitalists today are really just con men, looking to make money by selling America’s wealth to the lowest bidder around the world.
We all complain about dealing with call centers in India, yet the corporations setting them up there continue to get away with telling us our “call is very important” to them, via a recording, of course. That’s not free market capitalism, and if you want to conserve or preserve that, then please call me a radical progressive!
@ Birds of a Feather –
Yes, locking oppsing views out of your TV etc. is the American, Patriotic thing to do.
I can picture him in his living room now, with an Amercian Flag blindfold (and thong), fingers planted firmly in his ears, singing Hulk Hogan’s “Real American” theme song at the top of his lungs over and over and over again…
“I am a real American, Fight for the rights of every man,
I am a real American, fight for what’s right, fight for your life!”
Zune Tang, you do me proud!
Still in the news:
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/
“You get the coveted hip brand in Microsoft . . .”
<spit take>
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ass factory.
“On the other hand, most of the people calling themselves conservatives or capitalists today are really just con men, looking to make money by selling America’s wealth to the lowest bidder around the world. “
You mean like the factories in China that build Macs?
I think Birds of a Feather and ZuneTang are cut from the same cloth. May even be the same troll–er, person.
The original Macs were built in California, and it was the rest of the industry’s race to the bottom that forced Apple to cease US production.
Big business. Who’s to say that Universal’s position didn’t change pricing strategy on movie downloads. As long as a solution can be reached that benefits studios=Apple=customers, this is all just business and a lot of posturing.
In some ways, the writer’s strike increases the studio’s reliance on Apple. In turn, Apple will make the studios money. And the result will be happy consumers who get what they want at competitive and acceptable prices.
Of Course all computers are built in China. Where else could they be built?
ZT: “You get the coveted hip brand in Microsoft..”
That was so funny, it almost made me LOL.
Steve Jobs tell Zucker and NBC to fuck off!
Apple don’t need those idiots on board on iTunes.
Looks like Steve Jobs was right and you were wrong Zucker!
Now go and curl up in a corner and die – no one needs your network’s amateurish content anyway.
Even crazier now.
So, the new way new shows will be promoted is to make them avalible on iTunes and see if the public is interested?
Cool!
I don’t care about the previous posturing of Zucker and Jobs.
It’s better to have allies than enemies, even if it is only for profit motives.
@Ferf Muckmeyer
Looking at NBC Universal and J Zucker dispassionately.
“NBC Universal reported a 10 per cent increase in operating profit for the fourth quarter, its fifth consecutive quarter of growth and its first double-digit gain in nearly three years.
For 2007, the General Electric-owned media company’s film, cable television and theme park units all turned in record performances.” – as reported by The Financial Times.
To say that NBC Universal is tanking is a ridiculous point of view, most peeps posting on MDN espouse a capitalist outlook yet can not embrace capitalism for any company that they <u>”perceive”</u> as detrimental to Apple. While I well understand the passion, I sense that the logic is missing. The market will dictate events.
Do not for one moment presume that SJ considers that Zucker is a sucker, SJ understands the game that is afoot and would respect Zucker for his tenacity and business tactics. Pissed off at Zucker yes, but still understanding and unprejudiced. Brinkmanship!
The MacDailyNews Take: “… This may, however, be a sign that Zucker and NBC are beginning to crawl back to Steve Jobs and Apple’s market-dominating iTunes Store” – Is pernicious and misses the point – that NBC Universal and the other studios were able to determine a variable price structure for FILM downloads,which is what they are trying to achieve for television content on iTunes.
Sometimes I feel that MDN need to pull their head out of the sand and respect other business’s fundamental right to stand tough, to fight for a slice of profits and uphold their requirements to institutional investors.
“NBC and other companies have already used the strike to terminate millions of dollars of long-term production contracts. Mr Zucker is planning to go further by cutting enduring features of the television business, including the pilot season, in which networks develop programmes, and the splashy ‘upfront’ presentations in which they tout them to advertisers. ‘Things like that are all vestiges of an era that’s gone by and won’t return,’ Mr Zucker told the Financial Times.”
This all sounds like the ravings of another bean-counter, cum CEO, who hasn’t really learned anything from the past.
There’s a real sensation of deja-vu to this because this sounds very similar to the “reasoning” of everyone touting the inevitable, it’s-gonna-happen-any-day-now, success of music subscriptions.
Cutting expenses is never a good business method for trying to make a profit. It’s shortsighted and NBC is going to see a continuing decline in viewership.
Why is the text so small?