• by Shankar Gupta , August 2, 2006

NBC Universal has tapped Major League Baseball Advanced Media veteran George Kliavkoff to head its online operations as chief digital officer.

Kliavkoff says he sees room for growth in digital revenue across a variety of NBC Universal properties. "The idea is over the long haul to create high revenue, sustainable, good gross profit margin, digital businesses," says Kliavkoff, who will report to Beth Comstock, president of NBC Universal digital media and market development. "I see opportunities across all the business units--sports, news, television networks, the cable stations, as well as Universal Studios," he adds.

At Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Kliavkoff was responsible for establishing partnerships with companies in the interactive space, including major cable companies and phone carriers, MSN, AOL, Google, Ask.com, Yahoo, Sony, and several video game companies. Before that, he ran business development for Real Networks' consumer division.

Kliavkoff says it's too early to outline specific plans, but points out that NBCU has already begun building up a presence in the digital space through initiatives like iTunes downloads.

Kliavkoff's hire comes at a time when NBCU's revenues are flagging due to low ad revenues. Net profit in the company's second quarter of 2006 dropped 10 percent, the company reported this month. Kliavkoff will start at NBC in September.