[opendtv] News; NBC, Affils Agree on DTV Service
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:03:11 -0400
NBC, Affils Agree on DTV Service
By Steve McClellan -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/15/2004 12:55:00 PM
NBC and its affiliates have agreed to enter a 50-50 joint venture to
launch a new digital weather and news-alert service.
It's the first of several "big ideas" the network and its affiliates
hope to put into place to exploit the multiple channels digital TV
makes possible. The parties have been mulling such a plan since last
year. The idea was hatched in an affiliate/network futures committee
that brainstorms on how the stations and the network can do business
together.
Affiliates approved the venture at their affiliate meeting in New
York Wednesday. NBC also said it would launch its new and enhanced
Olympic Web site, NBC Olympics.com, in June. The site integrates
local station Web sites into the national Olympics site for the first
time.
NBC Chairman Bob Wright told affiliates at the closed session that
the network would continue to value the relationship with its TV
affiliates every bit as much after the merger with Vivendi Universal.
"There is one thing that does not change at all with the Universal
deal: Our commitment to you and to the network-affiliate system as
the engine that drives our entire enterprise," Wright said. He also
stressed the importance of securing digital multicast must-carry to
insure that ventures like the weather/news alert service succeed. "We
need digital must-carry. We need it to protect our investments in
digital. We need it to move forward with the digital transition. And
our viewers need it to reap the benefits of digital TV."
The network will issue a white paper on the must-carry issue to
bolster its case in Washington today.
Terry Mackin, executive vice president of Hearst-Argyle Television,
who spearheads the futures committee for affiliates, was named
chairman of the NBC affiliates advisory board succeeding Roger Ogden,
executive VP of Gannett.
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