Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age (52 page)

35.
Sam Schechner and Jessica E. Vascellaro, “Hulu Reworks Its Script as Digital Change Hits TV,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 27, 2011.

36.
King, “Verizon Wireless Makes Marketing, Airwave Deal with Three Cable Companies.”

Chapter 6. The Peacock Disappears

Epigraph. “Don Geiss, America and Hope,”
30
Rock
, Season 4, Episode 15, NBC Universal, March 18, 2010.

1.
“
The Comcast/NBC Universal Merger: What Does the Future Hold for Competition and Consumers”: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary
,” 111th Cong. 12 (2010) (Statement of Senator Herb Kohl).

2.
Robert Edelstein, “Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal,”
Broadcasting and Cable
, October 20, 2009,
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/hof/1603-Jeff_Zucker.php
.

3.
Staci D. Kramer, “Zucker Will Leave NBCU Following Comcast Merger; All About Burke Now,”
PaidContent.org
, September 24, 2010,
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-zucker-will-leave-nbcu-following-comcast-merger/
.

4.
Claire Atkinson, “NBC Boss Eyes $30M+ Exit Deal from Comcast,”
New York Post
, June 2, 2010, available at
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/see_ya_zuckers_5oBszoRLEkIzFgg7px5IFN
.

5.
Frazier Moore, “Two Media Companies, Two Bosses Exiting,” Associated Press, September 24, 2010, available at
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2010/09/24/2_media_companies_2_bosses_exiting/
.

6.
Andrew Wallenstein, “Was Jeff Zucker Really So Bad for NBC Universal?”
PaidContent.org
, January 28, 2011,
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-was-jeff-zucker-really-so-bad-for-nbc-universal/
.

7.
“
The Comcast/NBC Universal Merger,”
11 (2010) (Statement of Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal).

8.
Amy Chozick and Brian Stelter, “Comcast Rises on Cable; Film Helps Time Warner,”
New York Times
, November 2, 2011, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/business/media/internet-customers-and-advertising-sales-bolster-comcasts-profits.html
.

9.
Jon Lafayette, “An Amazing Story of Cable Network Margins,”
Broadcasting and Cable
, November 22, 2011,
http://www.navigationpartnersllc.com/an-amazing-story-of-cable-network-margins/
.

10.
“Corporate Info,”
NBC.com
, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/Corporate_Info.shtml
.

11.
Jeff Gerth and Brady Dennis, “Loophole Helps GE Benefit from Bank Rescue Program,”
Washington Post
, June 29, 2009 available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955.html?sid=ST2009062803183;
Rachel Layne and Rebecca Christie, “GE Wins FDIC Insurance for up to $139 Billion in Debt,”
Bloomberg
, November 12, 2008,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3I211f0pz9s&dbk
; Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, “The Killer G's:
Resolution Authority, Financial Stabilization, and Taxpayer Bailouts; Research Note,” April 23, 2010, available at
http://www.cambridgewinter.org/Cambridge_Winter/Welcome_files/killer%20g's%20042310.pdf
.

12.
Rachel Layne, “GE Exiting NBC Universal Brings Immelt Cash,”
Bloomberg
, December 3, 2009,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMzZBVMqKcHc
.

13.
“Chief Executive Says GE Won't Sell NBC Universal,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 12, 2008, available at
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/12/business/fi-ge12
.

14.
Ibid.

15.
“NBC Universal History,” NBC Universal, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.nbcuni.com/corporate/about-us/history/
; Moore, “Two Media Companies.”

16.
Layne, “GE Exiting NBC Universal.”

17.
Glenn Greenwald, “The Scope—and Dangers—of GE's Control of NBC and MSNBC,”
Salon
, August 3, 2009; Brian Stelter, “Voices from Above Silence a Cable TV Feud,”
New York Times
, July 31, 2009, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/media/01feud.html?_r=2&src=twt&twt=nytimes
,

18.
Jonathan Blakely, “Connecting Dots: Obama Seeks Big Picture to Frame an Agenda,”
ABC News
, January 25, 2010,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/connecting-dots/
.

19.
Julianna Goldman and Rachel Layne, “Obama Asks GE's Immelt to Head Economic Advisory Panel, Replacing Volcker,”
Bloomberg
, January 21, 2001,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-21/obama-taps-ge-s-immelt-for-economy-panel-replace-volcker.html
.

20.
Tim Arango, “Vivendi's Stake in NBC Universal May Be Sold,”
New York Times
, September 18, 2009, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/business/media/19electric.html
; banking industry employee, interview with the author, July 2010.

21.
Bob O'Brien, “GE Shares Pitch to 14-Year Low,”
Barron's
, February 20, 2009,
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2009/02/20/ge-shares-pitch-to-14-year-low/
.

22.
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tim Arango, “In Secret Meetings, Comcast Wooed G.E. and Won NBC,”
New York Times
, December 2, 2009, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/business/media/03nbc.html
.

23.
Ibid.

24.
“Mrs. Donaghy,”
30
Rock
, Season 5, Episode 11, NBC Universal, January 20, 2011.

25.
Sorkin and Arango, “In Secret Meetings.”

26.
Sharon Waxman, “Exclusive: Comcast in Talks to Buy NBCUniversal,”
The Wrap
, September 30, 2009,
http://www.thewrap.com/deal-central/article/exclusive-comcast-buy-nbc-universal-general-electric-8002
.

27.
Banking industry employee, interview with the author, July 2010.

28.
Mitchell Stephens, “History of Television,”
Groiler Multimedia Encyclopedia
, 2000 ed., accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm
.

29.
Television History—The First
75
Years
, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.tvhistory.tv
.

30.
Edmund Lindop and Margaret J. Goldstein,
America in the
1940s
(Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2010), 106.

31.
Television History—The First
75
Years.

32.
Radio Corporation of America, “RCA-NBC Firsts in Color Television, a Chronological List of Significant Firsts by the Radio Corporation of America and the National Broadcasting Company in Color Television,” news release, March 27, 1955, available at
http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html
.

33.
Stephens, “History of Television.”

34.
Robert Abelman and David J. Atkin,
The Televiewing Audience: The Art and Science of Watching TV
(New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 81.

35.
Senator Al Franken, “Franken Statement from Hearing on NBC/Comcast Merger” news release, February 4, 2010,
http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=483
.

36.
Ibid.

37.
William T. Bielby and Denise D. Bielby, “Controlling PrimeTime: Organizational Concentration and Network Television Programming Strategies,”
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
47 (2003): 583.

38.
William M. Kunz,
Culture Conglomerates: Consolidation in the Motion Picture and Television Industries
(Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 159.

39.
Senator Al Franken, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

40.
Bielby and Bielby, “Controlling PrimeTime” Franken, “Franken Statement.”

41.
“
Competition in the Media and Entertainment Distribution Market”: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary
, 111th Cong. 137 (2010).

42.
“Corporate Info,”
NBC.com.

43.
David B. Wilkerson, “NBC Universal's Quarterly Profit Plunges 30%,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 22, 2010, available at
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2010-01-22/industries/30771774_1_nbc-universal-financial-officer-keith-sherin-operating-profit
; Marc Graser, “GE Earnings Drop 19% in Fourth Quarter,”
Variety
, January 22, 2010, available at
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014177?refCatId=3765
; “
Competition in the Media and Entertainment Distribution Market
,” 111th Cong. 13 (Joint Written Testimony of Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Comcast Corporation and Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal).

44.
Robert Seidman, “The Reason Why NBC Universal Is Losing So Much on the Olympics: It Paid Too Much for Them!”
tvbythenumbers.com
, February 14, 2010,
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/02/14/the-reason-why-nbc-universalis-losing-so-much-money-on-the-olympics-it-paid-too-much-for-them/
.

45.
“Is Free TV Coming to an End?”
CBSnews
, December 29, 2009,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/29/entertainment/main6032487.shtml
.

46.
Suzanne M. Kirchhoff, “Advertising Industry in the Digital Age” (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, November 9, 2009), available at
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40908.pdf
.

47.
Todd Spangler, “Cable Network Advertising up 16% in 2009: Nielsen,”
Multichannel News
, April 28, 2010,
http://www.multichannel.com/article/451991-Cable_Network_Advertising_Up_16_In_2009_Nielsen.php
.

48.
Diane Mermigas, “5 Strategies Comcast Needs to Pursue,”
Mediapost.com
, May 14, 2010,
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/128278/
.

49.
Nellie Andreeva, “2011 Basic Cable Ratings: USA Still on Top, History & FX Up, Nick at Nite & TBS Down,”
Deadline.com
, December 28, 2011,
http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/2011-basic-cable-ratings-usa-still-on-top-history-fx-up-nick-at-nite-tbs-down/
.

50.
Nikki Finke, “Jeff Zucker Fired by Steve Burke: Comcast ‘Wanted to Move on’ After Merge; NBCU Chief Emails Staff About Forced Exit,”
Deadline.com
, September 24, 2010,
http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/cnbc-zucker-wont-make-comcast-merger/
.

51.
NBC Universal, “NBC Universal Cable Networks.”
NBC.com
, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/NBC_Universal_Cable_Networks/
; “About Bravo,”
Bravotv.com
, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.bravotv.com/about-bravo
; “About CNBC U.S.,”
CNBC.com
, accessed March 9, 2012,
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15907487/
.

52.
“General Electric Company Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript,”
Seeking Alpha
, January 22, 2010, available at
http://seekingalpha.com/article/183965-general-electric-company-q4-2009-earnings-call-transcript
.

53.
Mermigas, “5 Strategies Comcast Needs to Pursue.”

54.
Brian Stelter, “NBC-Comcast Deal Puts Broadcast TV in Doubt,”
New York Times
, December 7, 2009, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/business/media/07nbc.html
.

55.
Federal Communications Commission, “General Cable Television Industry and Regulation Information Fact Sheet,” June 2000, available at
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/facts/csgen.html
.

56.
Kunz,
Culture Conglomerates
, 175.

57.
Seth Schiesel, “In Cable TV, Programmers Provide a Power Balance,”
New York Times
, July 16, 2001, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/business/incable-tv-programmers-provide-a-power-balance.html?pagewanted=all
.