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WILL GE SELL NBC?
[SOURCE: New York Post, AUTHOR: Peter Laura peter.lauria@nypost.com]
General Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt's increased involvement in the direction of NBC Universal could be a sign that the entertainment giant's parent is mulling an eventual exit from the TV and film business. Three sources close to the company said that keeping NBC for the long-term remains very much an open question in Immelt's mind, and added he could look to sell the asset if it doesn't significantly improve in the next 12 months. Indeed, with digital media not yet rivaling the cash thrown off by traditional media, and GE's history of adherence to strict performance measures, Immelt could explore alternatives for the division, including a possible sale, these sources said.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072007/business/plucked_peacock_business_p...

DONE DEAL AT NBCU: ZUCKER SUCCEEDS WRIGHT
[SOURCE: tvnewsday]
General Electric Co. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt announced the appointment of Jeff Zucker as President and CEO of NBC Universal, succeeding Bob Wright, who held that job for 21 years and who will continue to serve as a GE vice chairman. As CEO of NBCU’s television group, Zucker has overseen the company’s news, sports, and entertainment divisions; owned-and-operated television stations; cable entertainment properties, including USA, Sci Fi, and Bravo; cable news properties, CNBC and MSNBC; Spanish language network Telemundo; and the company’s television studio, first-run syndication, and global distribution efforts. Previously, Zucker had served as president of the NBC Entertainment, News & Cable Group. Before that, he was president of NBC Entertainment. A five-time Emmy winner, Zucker also was executive producer of the Today show, where, NBCU said, “he turned the morning news program into the single-most profitable program on television.” Under Wright’s leadership, NBC’s revenues grew from $3 billion in 1986 to more than $16 billion in 2006. During his tenure, the company expanded its ownership of broadcast television stations, launched groundbreaking cable networks such as CNBC and MSNBC, and acquired fast-growing media assets such as Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo and the arts and entertainment cable network, Bravo. In 2004, Wright led NBC’s acquisition of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, creating NBC Universal. The acquisition added assets including the USA Network, Sci Fi Channel, Universal Studios and Universal Parks in Orlando, Fla., and Hollywood.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/02/06/daily.11/

Wright Says Digital Is Zucker's Biggest Challenge
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Ben Grossman]
Outgoing NBC Universal chief Bob Wright says the biggest challenge for his replacement, Jeff Zucker, is to win the race to figure out how to monetize new media. "It’s sorting out the digital is the real challenge, the rest of our business is pretty good right now," he said in a CNBC interview Tuesday morning. "Everybody can't have My Space. We all want to have My Space. At least we think we do right this minute."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413845.html?display=Breaking...

HOLLYWOOD TAKES ITS CONCERNS ABOUT PIRACY AND TAXES TO WASHINGTON
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Halbfinger]
With a new Congress in session, the heads of the major movie studios converged on the capital Tuesday to pitch their industry in the unaccustomed role of good guy: boon to the trade balance, engine of economic growth, polisher of the nation’s image and employer of a big, uncelebrated, middle-class work force. Cheered by the Democratic takeover, the industry’s leadership hopes to press its agenda of fighting piracy, obtaining new tax advantages and reining in movie and television production from going abroad. So the Motion Picture Association of America put on a daylong show for lawmakers, lobbyists and Capitol Hill aides, armed with some A-list talent and a new study showing that film and TV production accounts for $30 billion in wages, $10 billion in taxes, more than 400,000 jobs and a trade surplus of $9.5 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/business/media/07movie.html
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HOLLYWOOD ON THE HILL: TIME TO BURY THE BROADCAST FLAG?
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] PK agrees that copyright is central to the business of movie making, but "what we don't usually agree with Hollywood about is the means by, and the degree to which, government should protect those copyrights." Over the past 5 years, Hollywood and the recording industry have pushed numerous proposals in Congress, and they have tended to fall into several categories: 1) government technology mandates like the broadcast flag; 2) expanding secondary copyright liability (like the “Induce Act”); 3) expanding the permissions culture (e.g., licensing temporary or buffer copies); and 4) increasing punishment for copyright infringement that falls just short of death by hanging. The good news is that most of these efforts have failed. The bad news is that with a Democratic-controlled Congress and one year until a Presidential election, you can bet your mortgage that they will be pushing these, and other initiatives hard in 2007.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/815

INTERNET SERVERS HANDLE MAJOR GLOBAL ATTACK
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Ted Bridis]
Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic yesterday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002. Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted as long as 12 hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines. The motive for the attacks was unclear, said Duane Wessels, a researcher at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the Supercomputing Center in San Diego. Wessels said that it was "maybe to show off or just be disruptive; it doesn't seem to be extortion or anything like that." Other experts said the hackers appeared to disguise their origin, but vast amounts of rogue data in the attacks were traced to South Korea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR200702...
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WIRELESS WEB MOVES TOWARD OPEN ACCESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Roger Cheng roger.cheng@dowjones.com]
Wireless carriers historically have preferred to sell directory and other services through their own networks. But now, carriers have gradually begun opening up their Web access. Cingular Wireless, owned by AT&T Inc., gave Apple Inc. free rein to put its own content and browser in the recently unveiled iPhone in a rare demonstration of blind faith in a device maker. It typifies a change in attitude and a new willingness to loosen their once-tight control over their subscribers. A restrictive mentality and the clunky user interface found on many handsets, some argue, impedes the growth of data services and keeps traditional Web companies from getting into the mobile Internet business. With the carriers offering frustrating and clumsy browsers, some believe they would be better off letting companies such as Google Inc. or Yahoo Inc. deal with the user interface.Yet the carriers' restrictive controls have meant the Internet titans have had difficulties breaking into the mobile market.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117081521696800393.html?mod=todays_us_pe...
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