• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 28, 2006

NBC Digital's leadership team got a makeover this week, as Stephen Andrade was promoted to senior vice president, digital development and general manager, NBC.com, while Carole Panick moved into the position of vice president of digital content and development.

Previously, Andrade's responsibilities for NBC included acting as NBC Entertainment's liaison with NBCi, conducting West Coast business development for NBC Digital Media, and overseeing legal issues for Snap, the predecessor to NBCi.

Reporting directly to Andrade, Panick will be responsible for managing entertainment content for NBC.com. She will also develop exclusive and original online content to complement all network day part programming. As a senior member of the NBC.com management team, Panick is charged with providing both creative and operational direction for all site content features.

During Andrade's long tenure as vice president of interactive development--since 1999--NBC.com's team has more than quadrupled in size due to widespread growth in online publishing. He will continue to report to Vivi Zigler, executive vice president, NBC digital entertainment and new media, a company said. (Zigler reports to Jeff Gaspin, president NBC Universal cable entertainment, digital content and cross-network Strategy.)

Panick has served as senior director, digital content and development since 2001. During that time she has produced or overseen a number of Web projects for NBC including interviews, photos, games, contests, character sections and podcasts for "ER," "Law & Order," "Friends," "American Dreams," "The Apprentice," "Frasier," "Will & Grace," "The Biggest Loser," and "The Tonight Show," among other shows.

During the last week in October, NBC.com said its "NBC Rewind" feature--its large-format, full-episode video player--reached nearly four million video streams in its third week of release, representing growth of almost one million streams over the week prior. In addition, the site's established player delivered nearly three million streams resulting in the total number of streams on NBC.com approaching seven million video streams for the week. The statistics were based on information provided by Omniture and Hitwise, which ranked NBC.com as the number one broadcast network site in terms of total visits for the week of October 14.

In October, NBC Universal announced imminent cost-cutting and staff layoffs and signaled an interest in cheaper productions including reality TV and online initiatives.