• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
method logo sxs 280x96 wht

methodshop

tech news, reviews & how to's

  • Trending
  • Latest
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Internet
    • Software
    • Security
    • Games
    • Advertising
  • Life
    • Entertainment
    • TV & Film
    • Music
    • Health & Science
    • Family
    • Social Media
    • Food
    • Style
  • Learn
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • News
      • Business
      • Crime
      • Politics
  • Fun
    • Featured
    • Humor
    • Holiday
    • Random Articles

Home : NBC Channel Hundreds of Millions of Dollars into Buying Up Foreign Channels

NBC Channel Hundreds of Millions of Dollars into Buying Up Foreign Channels

Nov 26, 2007 by J. Frank Wilson
FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Nbc Channel Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Into Buying Up Foreign Channels - Cnnbc125 1NBC Universal, the Hollywood studio behind the TV drama House, is planning its biggest ever international spectacular, with hundreds of millions of dollars set aside to buy small foreign TV channels and producers.

Owned by GE, the world’s second largest company, NBC Universal has been tasked with nearly doubling its revenues outside the US by 2010, to $5bn (£2.4bn). The man leading the charge is British executive Pete Smith.

Smith has already bought UK-based pay TV business Sparrowhawk, which broadcasts its Hallmark and KidsCo channels worldwide. “I’m interested in smaller companies that haven’t reached their full potential and would benefit from us bringing them on,” says Smith. “I want a budget of $2bn a year, my chief financial officer wants $400m. I hope we get somewhere in the middle. It will be hundreds of millions of dollars.”

NBC is piling into an already crowded arena. Sony has made 35 films outside the US in the last decade. MTV has been on air since 1981, Time Warner has an extensive pay TV business, with brands including Cartoon network and CNN. Disney, meanwhile, is helping to fill the funding gap in children’s TV production in the UK, having set up a global production hub in London in April. The BBC’s commercial arm will launch 20 international channels by March.

Smith is playing a high-stakes game. But then he is something of an adrenaline junkie. A keen biker, he is nursing broken ribs after an accident on the track. That hasn’t put him off, despite Mrs Smith’s concerns. “My wife found me poring over pictures of motorbikes the other day – it felt like I’d been caught with a top-shelf mag.”

NBC’s channels outside the US will number 50 by the end of the year, up from 13 at the start. A further 30 are planned for 2008. Next year will see a rethink on the array of channel brands, with Smith keen to see the Universal Channel, a star performer in Latin America, exported more widely. He is also building, in London, an international TV production business and a film unit. The TV arm is headed by Angela Bromstad, who as president of the US television studios was behind the sci-fi series Heroes, the US version of The Office, the medical drama House and the Law & Order franchise.

She is talking to US creators about establishing production offices in Britain, so that programme ideas can be pitched to big broadcasters such as ITV. The focus will be on comedy, drama and sci-fi.

Law & Order is already being remade in Russian and French, and its creator, Dick Wolf, is looking for other opportunities abroad. On the comedy front, NBC is a major shareholder in Working Title, the British company behind Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Some are sceptical that UK broadcasters will want to commission from a Hollywood studio rather than a local producer, where they can have a greater influence over the product and take a greater share of the revenues.

But NBC is offering 25 per cent of the $1.2bn an episode needed these days to produce top flight drama. And it can use its channels to showcase the product around the world, boosting international sales.

GE owns 80 per cent of NBC Universal, with the balance held by French conglomerate Vivendi. Reports have suggested GE will dispose of its studio business after the Beijing Olympics in 2012, but Smith says he is not preparing for a sale.

Nbc Channel Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Into Buying Up Foreign Channels - 300Px The Earth Seen From Apollo 17 2

[Via Telegraph]

J. Frank Wilson
J. Frank Wilson

Frank Wilson is a retired teacher with over 30 years of combined experience in the education, small business technology, and real estate business. He now blogs as a hobby and spends most days tinkering with old computers. Wilson is passionate about tech, enjoys fishing, and loves drinking beer.

FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
Tag: International, NBC Universal
Previous Post:CBS Pays $300,000 To Settle KUTV License Challenge
Next Post:F-ing Enchanted: The F-Word in a Disney Movie?

Sidebar

Popular Posts

30 Weird And Embarrassing David Hasselhoff Photos

7 Pictures Of Naked People Captured By Google’s Cameras

How To Change The Default LG TV Home Screen To Live TV

Where Did The Phrase “Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal” Come From?

Top 200 Nielsen DMA Rankings (2023) – Full List

About

MethodShop’s mission is to entertain, inform, and sometimes gross you out. MethodShop has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of the revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the retailer, not by us. All prices are subject to change.

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Trending Posts

david hasselhoff dogs

30 Weird And Embarrassing David Hasselhoff Photos

google naked

7 Pictures Of Naked People Captured By Google’s Cameras

lg tv disable home screen scaled

How To Change The Default LG TV Home Screen To Live TV

Latest Posts

A woman in a yellow shirt is looking up at a USS Enterprise star trek ship.

What Does USS Stand for in Star Trek?

An aerial view of a Tesla factory featuring corporate branding through giant letters that spell TESLA.

The Next Frontier In Corporate Branding: Giant Logos For Satellite Maps

boss xmas card

30 Ideas On What To Write In A Boss’s Christmas Card

MethodShop Animated Zoom Icon
  • About
  • Submit
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Store

Copyright © 2023 MethodShop · All Rights Reserved.