• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 5, 2006

While Vivendi considers selling its minority stake in NBC Universal next year, NBCU's presumed CEO-in-waiting said Monday that he does not expect the French company to do so.

NBCU television group head Jeff Zucker, who is expected to succeed Bob Wright as the top executive of the whole General Electric division, characterized NBCU's relationship with Vivendi as "very good." He believes they will "be around for quite some time."

Vivendi has the option to sell part of its 20% stake in NBCU to GE next year.

"We're reflecting on our position in NBC Universal and will make a decision at the latest in January 2007," Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy told shareholders last month, according to a Bloomberg report.

Zucker, speaking at an annual Credit Suisse media conference, tamped down any suggestion that GE would place NBCU on the block, even with private-equity firms seemingly lining up to throw money at high-profile media properties.

He said NBCU will be a "major piece of GE's plans going forward."

Separately, Zucker said NBC has not streamed episodes of "The Office" comedy for free on NBC.com because the company does not want to hurt its eventual value in the syndication market. He also suggested that new comedy "30 Rock" could eventually have considerable syndication value.

Contrary to some reports, NBC will continue to invest heavily in developing scripted shows, he noted--although NBCU will look for ways to trim costs by investing strategically in that department.

"There will be some lower-cost programming as a result," he said, adding that cheaper-to-produce reality shows do not necessarily equate to lesser-quality programming.