• by Wayne Friedman , July 30, 2010

NBC continues to look to kick up its businesses -- advertising revenues and program development. Concerning last June's upfront advertising market, Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, in speaking to MediaPost after a session at the Television Critics Association meeting in Los Angeles, said: "It's as good as I've seen it -- even in our best years. It was a tremendous upfront for broadcasting and cable. The reaction from the advertising community was fantastic. They are thrilled we are back in business in a big way."

At the session, he said: "There is incredible health in the business. I hope it's not just a bubble."

A growing number of audience metrics are now making programming and business analysis harder to analyze, adds Gaspin.

"There are so many different numbers to look at -- overnights, C3 [commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback], L7s [live ratings plus seven days of DVR playback]" as well as Internet viewership and other measures, he said. "We have to learn to monetize it better."

Programming-wise, NBC is looking to speed up its process in getting out of its fourth-place position. For the fall and midseason, it will have 12 new shows.

"We are trying to rebuild -- putting more money into development," says Gaspin. "We were taking too few shots; we don't want to make that mistake again." Concerning all errors of the recent past, he said: "We made too many changes too quickly from a position of weakness."

One question from critics addressed Jay Leno's slow return as the host of "The Tonight Show." His ratings among 18-49 viewers hover around the 1.1 rating mark -- far lower than Leno's 1.6 rating level maintained before Conan O'Brien's brief tenure as program host.

Gaspin countered that in the fourth-quarter 2009, "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" were essentially tied in the ratings among 18-49 viewers around the 1.1 rating mark. But more recently -- in the second and third quarter of 2010 after Leno returned -- the show gained some distance on "Late Show" with 22% higher ratings.

Angela Bromstad, president of prime-time entertainment of NBC and Universal Media Studios, added: "Hopefully, we can improve the prime-time shows, and that will help Jay as well."