Thursday 17 September 2009

Hollywood Babble On & On #373: Would You Buy NBC-U?

Welcome to the show folks...

As I mentioned yesterday, and I'm mentioning again because it's a snail-slow news day today, Vivendi is possibly looking to unload its 20% stake in NBC-Universal. Now yesterday I compared it to buying the anchor of the Titanic, but today, since I've got nothing else to report, I'm going to go a little deeper and break it down into pros and cons.

PROS:

1. NBC-Universal has a very large library of movies, TV shows, music as well as theme parks and other holdings. These properties have a lot of potential for making money.

2. The cable channels, especially the USA Network, are doing very well, and even SyFy seems to be surviving the lamest name change in TV history. In the case of the USA Network it many shows that out-rate some of the shows from their parent network.

3. General Electric, the parent company, seems to be doing very well, and if the "Cap & Trade" energy policy becomes the law of the land, it stands to make billions from government subsidized alternative energy programs.

CONS:

1. The large library of material is sadly underutilized, I used to catch old Universal films all the time on local stations growing up, now I have a satellite dish, and laying my eyes on an old Universal film has become rarer than hen's teeth. Plus, I've had more Universal DVDs turn out to be defective than from any other company,
but that's just my personal griping.

2. NBC-Universal doesn't seem capable of adding to that library with desirable entertainment, Universal Pictures had a dreadful summer at the box office, and the main broadcast network NBC has been unable to buy a hit for love or money in a disturbingly long time. Then there's such craven acts of greed and malice towards the audience like commissioning a reboot of the reboot of
Battlestar Galactica just months after the series concluded its run.

3. There are literally truckloads of reports about how toxic the corporate culture of NBC is. Power vacuums at the top, caused by promotion based on ass-kissing over merit, lead to constant treachery and backstabbing among folks in management. There are political games going on that have nothing to do with running a smooth and efficient network, and that's one of the main reasons why it's a rough and inefficient network.

Now you know what I think. What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. BSG is danger of hitting convoluted statues. While MBC-U wants to do a Bryan Singer BSG theatrical reboot. Ronald Moore and company are still trying to get their BSG prequel series CAPRICA off the ground.

    We all saw this before...when paramount burned out Star Trek by having two separate shows on TV at the same time while making films.

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