Even In Olympic Year, NBC's TV Stations Get Hit

Jeff Zucker of NBC UniversalFor NBC stations, it was supposed to be a big year--with political advertisers and network carriage of the Beijing Olympics. But according to NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Zucker, business conditions are now difficult.

 

"It's had a profound effect on our local TV stations, which were highly dependent on auto and retail advertising," Zucker told a conference of Britain's Royal Television Society in London on Friday, per a Reuters report.

Since the beginning of the year, many advertising research surveys have shown major cuts in automotive, telecommunications and retail advertising not seen since the last recession in 2001. TV advertising business conditions have worsened since the U.S. financial markets have accelerated into turmoil in the second half of the year.

Zucker did not get too specific regarding ad revenue financial results. NBC's 10 local stations (nine after the sale of its Miami, Fla., outlet closes) and 15 Telemundo stations get about $2 billion in advertising annually.

advertisement

advertisement

In big advertising political and Olympic seasons, stations typically can add 10% or more in ad revenues to their coffers. But many advertising executives say that U.S. TV stations are tracking well below those increases, with some station groups perhaps losing revenue by year's end.

Zucker had some positive news regarding the national advertising sales: "We haven't seen an advertising slowdown on a national level yet in the United States, but obviously we're concerned about it. I think if you're not concerned about it, you're in denial."

Two other TV senior executives recently concurred with these conditions are News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch and CBS Corp.'s Les Moonves. Both see a troubled local TV ad market--while the national TV ad market appears, at the moment, to be unscathed.

Next story loading loading..