Comcast owners, reporting 9% rise in profits, putting $200 million into NBC-TV programming

Under new Comcast ownership, NBCUniversal is investing $200 million more into developing hit NBC prime-time shows in 2011 than it did in 2010 to pull the broadcast network out of the ratings cellar.

Steve Burke, a former Comcast Corp. executive who is now CEO of NBCUniversal, said Wednesday that a large part of the $200 million was being used to develop new NBC shows for the troubled 10 p.m. slot.

The fourth-rated broadcast network had a disastrous experiment in 2009 with plugging late-night comedian Jay Leno there but lost viewers and saw its ratings sink lower. Facing a rebellion from its affiliate stations, NBC returned Leno to late night in 2010 and aired reruns.

"The real key to turning around NBC," Burke said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, "is not necessarily the increase in investment. The real key is making better shows."

Burke and others at NBC and Comcast have high hopes for The Voice, a reality competition show along the same lines as American Idol.

Burke's comments were made during the first Comcast earnings call since the cable company closed on the deal to acquire a 51 percent controlling stake in NBCUniversal from industrial giant General Electric Corp. The deal closed Jan. 28.

Comcast released its first-quarter earnings Tuesday, reporting that profits rose 9 percent from a year ago and that it had for the second consecutive quarter slowed the drain of cable-TV customers. The company, the nation's largest cable-TV provider, lost 39,000 subscribers in the first quarter.

Brian L. Roberts, Comcast's chief executive, said that he was "generally pleased" with NBCU's results in the first quarter and that "we need to be patient" with the NBC broadcast-TV network. Michael Angelakis, the chief financial officer, reiterated that point, saying, "This is not a quick fix."

Comcast executives said the NBCU cable networks - the most profitable part of the entertainment and news giant - grew strongly in the first quarter with 13 percent revenue growth. Those cable networks include USA, Bravo, and CNBC, along with former Comcast networks such as E!

Comcast will invest an additional $100 million into developing new shows for the NBCU cable networks in 2011, Burke said. "I really want to highlight how great we feel about those [cable] channels now that we are inside the building," he added.

According to the earnings report, the NBCU cable networks generated $2 billion in revenue in the first quarter, while the broadcast-TV network division produced $1.4 billion.

One NBCU division that didn't do well was the Universal movie studio, which saw revenues decline and losses deepen in the first quarter. Some of the problem was associated with marketing expenses for films released this quarter, such as the fifth movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise, which grabbed the No. 1 spot last weekend in the box-office take, according to estimates from the studios.

Notwithstanding that success, "part of the problem," said Burke, "is we need to make better films."