The Paley Center for Media's International Council 2009 NYC brought together the industry's top innovators from across the globe for the most talked about media event of 2009.
This session features a conversation between NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker and CNBC anchor Erin Burnett.
Bio
Erin Burnett
Erin Burnett anchors CNBC's "Street Signs" (2-3 pm ET) and co-anchors CNBC's "Squawk on the Street," (9-11 am ET) with Mark Haines. She also appears regularly on NBC's "Today" and "Nightly News with Brian Williams" and is a contributor on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." She anchored CNBC's first live programs from the Middle East and India.
Burnett joined CNBC from Bloomberg Television where she anchored two hours of programming daily. Prior to Bloomberg, Burnett was a Vice President at Citigroup, where she built an online financial news network targeted at institutional and retail investors.
Burnett also worked at CNN as a writer and booker for CNN's "Moneyline." She began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. as an investment banking analyst focused on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a member of the team awarded the 2006 Deadline Club Award for Business Reporting.
Jeff Zucker
Jeff Zucker has served as president and CEO of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment content companies, since February 2007. He has spent his entire career at NBC Universal, joining the company’s Olympic unit in 1986, immediately out of college. In his more than twenty-two years with the company, he has had a diversified career as an award-winning producer and business leader.
His roles have included president of the NBC Universal Television Group, president of the Entertainment, News & Cable Group, and president of NBC Entertainment. He was also the youngest person to become executive producer of the Today show in 1992 at the age of twenty-six. A five-time Emmy Award winner, Mr. Zucker serves on a number of boards, including The Paley Center for Media’s Board of Trustees.
Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. Directed by RCA's president David Sarnoff, it became wholly owned by RCA in 1930. NBC was initially divided into the semi-independent Blue Network, based on station WJZ, and the Red Network, based on WEAF, each with links to stations in other cities. By 1938 the Red Network carried 75% of NBC's programs. The Blue Network was sold in 1941 and became the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC). NBC entered television broadcasting in a weakened position, and by 1952 it trailed CBS in audience ratings, though it gradually regained its leading position. In 1986 RCA was sold to GE; in 1987 NBC sold its radio networks. In the 1990s NBC expanded its cable television programming, creating MSNBC (an alliance with Microsoft) and CNBC (an alliance with Dow Jones).
Yup, it sure is "unfortunate" that NBC execs are coming off looking like greedy morons, only in it if the margins are right... but only unfortunate to Zucker and co. It's not like they keep canceling/losing/destroying fan favorites in search of something more lucrative. I'm glad that the Leno/Conan debacle has been all over the news highlighting their foolishness. And I might add, the cheapening of programming (esp. by the already heavily funded major networks like NBC) by forced brand mentioning and product placement is sickening. Ah, margins.
Seeing how Conan has been producing "memorable TV" for the last 16 years for NBC, I think somebody is being a bit too quick to judge.
Yet another reason I hate corporations...
member. 
