Must See TV?

After the election, there was a lot of talk about giving Sarah Palin a TV show. Would MSNBC be interested in making her a television host?
It's an interesting suggestion. I think she's a big personality who obviously is very likeable and those are qualities that go a long way in television.

Speaking of television hosts, let's talk about the decision to move Jay Leno to primetime. It's been widely reported that you stand to save tens of millions by not buying scripted TV shows. Was money your key consideration?
NBC Entertainment did not want to lose Jay. Everything else is secondary. They knew that if they couldn't find a role for him he was going somewhere else to perform his show. One of the residual benefits here is economic savings, but that was not the driving force or the reason we did it.

Then would you have kept him had he been more expensive than scheduling scripted dramas at a 10 o'clock slot?
No, I don't think we would have, frankly.

What are the risks of stripping Leno across the weeknights?
Anytime you introduce something new like this, there's always a slight bit of concern. We're just hoping for it to be as strong as possible to keep our [local news] lineup at 11 and our own late night line-up with Conan, [followed by] Jimmy Fallon and [then] Carson Daly as strong as possible.

Still, it's a risky move in uncertain times. You've already taken steps to cut costs, including layoffs. Are more on the way?
We believe we've taken all the steps we need to take. But you can never be sure of what's ahead. And I believe we're done, but we are going to continue to be vigilant but we don't know what the next months and the year will bring us. I'm never going to box myself into a corner.

How important is your digital strategy to the financial health of the company? How much does NBC Universal earn in digital revenues?
I'm not going to get into specifics. I can tell you that our digital revenues in no way have replaced what we've lost on the traditional side of the business. All of us in media, whether print or television, are in the middle of trying to transform the economics of digital. But it's a very tough game. None of us have really come up with an economic model that replaces what we've lost. We're not getting compensated online or digitally for everyone who's consuming our material in the same way we used to. We haven't fully trained the audience well enough to believe that it has to pay for the material online.

That's going to be a hard sell, which may explain your decision to partner with News Corp. in creating Hulu, the free online site to watch popular television shows. The idea behind it is that advertisers prefer to be in or near professional content, not user-generated clips like a lot of what's on YouTube. Is Hulu proving this to be true?
I think Hulu's been a tremendous success. There's been a slowdown in all aspects of advertising, including digital. But the macro point is still the same. Advertisers have shown much more willingness to have their messages be part of professionally produced content. That's one of the reasons Hulu has become such an overnight sensation.

Let's talk a little about sensations. Last year was extremely successful for two NBC Universal talents, Tina Fey and Rachel Maddow? But which had the more interesting year?
Who had the most interesting? I love all my children equally, but if you're going to force me to pick one, I don't think anyone in media had a more interesting year than Tina Fey—from her success in the Universal studio film "Baby Mama" to her work on [NBC hit sitcom] "30 Rock" to what she did on "Saturday Night Live" with Sarah Palin. I don't think there was any one who had more influence on American popular culture last year, and I think she secured her place as the queen of comedy.

© 2009