David Ellison, who will lead the New Paramount, said his goal is to expand the company into a media and technology hybrid that will be able to meet the needs of the evolving marketplace.

Ellison’s Skydance Media, along with Redbird Capital, formally announced their $8 billion plan to acquire legacy media company Paramount Global on Monday. 

An earlier, similar deal was pronounced dead by Shari Redstone, the daughter of Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who assembled Paramount. The Redstone family’s National Amusements, is selling its controlling stake in the company.

Ellison is calling the combination of Skydance and Paramount “New Paramount.” He said that was more than a catchphrase.

“We think its going to be a new day for this company,” Ellison said during a conference call with analysts Monday morning. “The deal will strengthen the balance sheet, enhance free cash flow and align voting and economic interests.”

The deal will also unify intellectual property held by both companies — including the Top Gun and Mission Impossible franchises — and add to Paramount Skydance’s interactive and gaming business; its sports production business, which works with the NFL (also a major partner of Paramount’s CBS Sports); and its animation studio, which had a deal with Netflix.

Financially, the new company expects to be able to reduce costs by $2 billion annually once the deal closes, which the company said is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2025. (First there will be a 45 day Go Shop period during which Paramount will entertain other bids.)

Skydance also produces video games based on The Walt Disney Co.’s Star Wars and Marvel franchises. Skydance’s interactive prowess should enhance Paramount franchises.

Participating in the call was Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO, who will be CEO of the New Paramount.

“It’s been a long time since a creative executive ran one of the big Hollywood companies,” Shell said of Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of technology company Oracle.

“If you went into a lab and designed the perfect executive for the next generation Hollywood company, you would literally spit out David Ellison, because he can not only go to a table read, but he can go into the next room and code,” Shell said. “This business is heading towards a technology-media hybrid and David’s perfect.”

Also on the call were the three members of Paramount Global’s office of the CEO: Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks and Brian Robbins. The three executives are expected to continue to run the company and implement their already announced  $500 million cos-reduction plan, a possible international streaming joint venture and potential asset sales.

Ellison said that the key principles he planned to follow were: “Quality is the the best plan, creatively”; “Aim high and never stop working till you get there”; to be where entertainment is heading, rather than where it’s been; and “the only way to accomplish this incredibly ambition goals is to bet on people.”

 Paramount’s business has been hurt as its cable channels have lost subscribers and revenue due to cord cutting and CBS has lost viewers and advertising as streaming has taken hold.

“Obviously a big chunk of the company is in the linear world and we know that linear is challenged and declining,” Shell said.

But he said Paramount still likes those businesses and plans to run them in a different way.

“We’ve spent a lot of the last few months really building a bottom-up plan and our goal is to manage the businesses, particularly the linear businesses, for cash-flow generation,” Shell said. “You have to make tough decisions, so we’ve identified what we want to do and we plan to do this fairly rapidly.”

He called CBS an unmatched asset with amazing reach. “We will continue to fuel that reach and we’re really happy about not just CBS, but the whole ecosystem of stations and affiliates . . . because it will drive our content for decades in front of us.”

He said the new Paramount will take a “fresh approach” to cable brands like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon that will involve a cross-platform strategy. 

More production for movies and television will be done in the cloud, with artificial intelligence tools that will enhance creativity, improve efficiency and lower costs.

In terms of streaming, Skydance expects to be able to upgrade Paramount Plus' technology platform with better algorithmic recommendations that will produce more viewing hours and less churn, as well increased monetization via advertising.

 He said Paramount will look at what content it should licence to other platforms and what it should keep for itself, using windowing to maximize the value of content. 

Paramount has received inbound interest from parties wanting to have Paramount Plus as a partner, and those will be considered. But the goal is for Paramount Plus to be part of an “ultimate bundle” that will eventually emerge, making streaming look more like cable, Shell said.

“We want to make this company the leader in entertainment, and that goes for DTC," he said.

Pending regulatory approval, it’s on — the Redstones no longer control Paramount. 

A special Paramount committee has approved an $8 billion bid from David Ellison's Skydance Media to take over Paramount Global. The move is expected to infuse much-needed capital into the struggling Hollywood studio, which has lost 70% of its enterprise value since 2019. 

The deal values the company — now dubbed “New Paramount” — at around $28 billion. 

The transaction will include Skydance paying $2.4 billion for National Amusements, the theatrical distribution company that late patriarch Sumner Redstone turned into a holding giant for his media and entertainment empire. 

Skydance and Paramount Global will then merge amid an all-stock transaction valued at $4.75 billion. 

Notable: Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, fired last year after the revelation of an extramarital affair with a co-worker, has been named president of Paramount. 

The deal was approved just six days after it was reported that Ellison was back in the game for Paramount, after National Amusements chief Shari Redstone called off an earlier proposal last month. 

Sumner Redstone, who died in 2020, built the erstwhile Viacom into a media powerhouse, with cash-cow media networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET combining hit factory Paramount Pictures — and later, the CBS Television Network — to create one of the most powerful hit factories in Hollywood. 

But as these linear operations have hit the hard times, streaming business Paramount Plus has become an anchor on the balance sheet, losing over $1 billion every year. 

“In 1987, my father, Sumner Redstone, acquired Viacom and began assembling and growing the businesses today known as Paramount Global,” Shari Redstone said in announcing the deal Sunday. “He had a vision that ‘content was king’ and was always committed to delivering great content for all audiences around the world. That vision has remained at the core of Paramount’s success and our accomplishments are a direct result of the incredibly talented, creative, and dedicated individuals who work at the company. Given the changes in the industry, we want to fortify Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king. Our hope is that the Skydance transaction will enable Paramount’s continued success in this rapidly changing environment. As a longtime production partner to Paramount, Skydance knows Paramount well and has a clear strategic vision and the resources to take it to its next stage of growth. We believe in Paramount and we always will.”

Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, who was terminated because of an inappropriate relationship with a CNBC anchor, forfeited $43.3 million in compensation as a result of losing his job for cause.

According to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by parent company Comcast, Shell was set to receive $21 million in compensation for 2022.

Shell’s employment with the company was “terminated with cause in April 2023, and as a result, he forfeited the PSUs and stock options granted in 2022, along with all other unvested equity awards and vested stock options,” the filing said.

Shell “did not receive any supplemental payments or benefits in connection with his termination. He will receive only his accrued but unpaid base salary and vacation time, vested employee benefits and reimbursement for any unreimbursed business expenses in accordance with his employment agreement,” the filing said. “Upon his termination, all unvested PSUs and RSUs and all vested and unvested stock options, which had an estimated fair value of $43.3 million as of the termination date, were forfeited and canceled.

Shell had received $22.7 million in 2021, according to the proxy statement. His salary in both years was $2.5 million

Michael Cavanagh, who was promoted to president of Comcast from chief financial officer in October, saw his compensation jump to $30.5 million in 2022 from $27.4 million in 2021. 

Cavanagh’s salary was unchanged at $2.3 million, but his option awards climbed to $21.1 million from $6.3 million.

After Shell was ousted, Cavanagh was put in charge of NBCU, in addition to his president’s job at Comcast.

CEO Brian Roberts’s total compensation fell slightly in 2022 to $32.1 million from $34 million in 2021. 

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has exited the company after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, parent Comcast said late Sunday (April 23).

“Mr. Shell will depart effective immediately following the Company’s investigation led by outside counsel into a complaint of inappropriate conduct,” the company said.

Shell was contrite in his exit statement: “Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” he wrote. “I'm truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege.”

Shell took over the reins of NBCU in 2019 from Steve Burke. He had been head of NBC Film and Entertainment.

Shell first joined Comcast in 2005 from News Corp.

Shell is also former chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which at the time oversaw U.S.-backed international media including Voice of America. 

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has left the company, after NBCU hired outside counsel to investigate a complaint about Shell's "inappropriate relationship" with a female coworker.

Numerous reports filed since NBCU's abrupt statement Sunday early afternoon have suggested that Shell, 57, had an affair with Abu Dhabi-based CNBC international correspondent Hadley Gamble. Neither NBCU, Shell or Gamble has confirmed that. 

The reports also said that Gamble filed the complaint against Shell herself. According to the Penske showbiz trades, Shell's relationship with Gamble started in around 2012 and continued sporadically up until a couple of years ago. 

On Monday, NBCU parent company Comcast told the SEC in a regulatory filing that it fired Shell "for cause" related to his alleged harassment of an employee. A with-cause termination would negate any severance requirement on NBCU's part. 

The decision for Shell to depart immediately was described as mutual in an NBCU statement released abruptly Sunday afternoon. Shell ran NBCU's entertainment operations and had been with the company for nearly two decades.

“Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret.  I'm truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege," Shell said in a statement. 

NBCU provided no further details in its statement. However, an internal memo intercepted by the New York Times said that Shell's senior executive team would, at least for now, report to Comcast President Mike Cavanagh. 

"We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more important than how we treat each other," reads a memo sent out Sunday by Cavanagh and Comcast Corp. Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts. 

"You should count on your leaders to create a safe and respectful workplace," the memo adds. "When our principles and policies are violated, we will always move quickly to take appropriate action, which we have done here." 

Ironically, it was Shell who fired longtime NBCU Vice Chairman Ron Meyer in 2020 over an affair with a woman who wasn't a company employee.

Shell is married to Laura Fay Shell, who previously worked for Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. 

In January, Shell and NBCU reported a huge $973 million adjusted EBITDA loss on streaming service Peacock in Q4, but the former CEO sounded optimistic about the platform turning the corner, with paid memberships doubling in 2022 to over 20 million. 

The weak television ad market may have “stabilized,” but a rebound may be months away, according to NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.

Speaking on parent company Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Shell said “the ad market steadily worsened over the course of last year. It feels like it bottomed out around late November, early December, and really since then it hasn’t gotten worse and maybe even a little bit better.”

NBCU ad sales were up 4% in the fourth quarter, but would have been down 5.6% without $263 million generated by Telemundo’s coverage of the World Cup, according to Comcast president Mike Cavanagh. NBCU also benefited from ad growth at Peacock and political advertising, which offset declines in linear advertising.

At this point, Shell noted that there are parts of the ad market that are doing well. He said the pharmaceutical and entertainment categories were good. “Travel is on fire,” he said.

Other categories are weak, including tech, autos and financial services, Shell said.

“It feels like the weakness is less to do with businesses not doing well and more to do with macro uncertainty,” he said. “None of us really know where the economy is headed and I think some advertisers in those segments are really holding back and when they do advertise, they’re coming in later than usual.”

Shell said NBCU was assuming the market will stay weak for the first half of this year and then recover. “But who really knows, based on the macro economy.”

In this market, NBCU was doing better than its peers, he said. It is being helped by growth at Peacock, which is offsetting declines at the company’s linear networks, which are losing subscribers and viewers. He added that the company’s investment in data and measurement are also helping.

Cavanagh said that Peacock lost $2.5 billion in 2022 and was expected to generate $3 billion in red ink in 2023. He said those would represent peak losses for Peacock.

Analysts asked Shell when Peacock would turn a profit, what its margins would look like and whether that would help NBCU return to pre-pandemic earnings levels.

Shell failed to provide specifics. 

“Our content business is doing great, and that’s a business that should grow over time,” he said. “We made a decision to invest in Peacock. It’s very clear that we picked the right business model.”

Shell said NBCU expected a return on its Peacock investment, and that it was more confident in that return now than a year or two ago.

“The trajectory, the timing of that really is up to macro conditions. How when does the ad market recover? What are linear declines going forward? We continue to cut costs in the linear segment to maintain our margins. So I'm pretty confident that we have a lot of growth ahead at NBCUniversal,” he said. ■

Peacock has added another 3 million paid users since early October and now touts 18 million subscribers, double the 9 million with which it finished 2021, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told investors Monday morning. 

“That’s real subscribers paying us real American dollars,” Shell told the UBS TMT Conference. 

Shell continued to attribute the accelerated growth of NBCU's hybrid SVOD/AVOD streaming platform to the company's decision to pull its NBC network content off of joint venture Hulu and place it on Peacock. 

Also read: Peacock Perks Up: Paid Subs Up to Over 15M, Active Users Reach 30M, NBCU Chief Jeff Shell Says

“We believe in the premium video ad-supported, dual revenue stream -- essentially broadcast and cable on streaming -- driven by key programming,” Shell said. "The flip side is it’s still a giant business. It’s just balancing out the two businesses.”

Indeed, like NBCU's rivals, the conglomerate is balancing the need to grow its direct-to-consumer business while trying to maintain what's left of fast-eroding linear channels. 

That's hard right now. 

NBCU reported a third-quarter EBITDA loss of $614 million on Hulu. Meanwhile, its flagship NBC broadcast network won premiere week (yay!) ... with a measly 1.0 average demo rating. And Universal Pictures has had a few hits at the global box office with its recent Jurassic Park and Minions sequels. But the overall domestic box office is pacing to come in at no better than 70% of the revenue generated in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. 

Shell and his team are further challenged by an advertising market that he said Monday is "definitely getting worse." 

Shell's comments were juxtaposed by a Business Insider story which reported planned layoffs for NBCU early next year. ■

Reading the shockingly respectful obituaries these past couple of days about Nikki Finke, my immensely controversial former boss, got me thinking about one thing (among, admittedly quite a lot of other things): what would Nikki Finke have written about NBCUniversal head Jeff Shell’s full-throated celebration of Peacock’s many putative recent achievements? 

Nikki hadn’t written much about anyone for awhile, thanks to a lingering unspecified illness that ultimately killed her at a too-young 68. And in truth, she hadn’t been anything like Peak Finke for a quite a while, after flouncing out of Deadline, the influential publication she founded, a decade ago, then failing to successfully launch two successors.

But her departure from this mortal coil is a reminder of the need for at least an ounce of the vinegar (if not the acidic bile) that she doused on self-congratulatory Hollywood execs and flacks during her late-aughts/early-teens reign of terror, taunting and truthtelling. 

Thankfully, one upside of that reign is that it forced the overly insular and sleepy trade publications that dominated Hollywood coverage for decades to get better and smarter, covering not just box office returns and spoon-fed casting announcement, but also digging more into Hollywood’s business personalities and decision-makers. 

For all of Finke’s many abusive personal and journalistic downsides, she ushered in a new era of trade coverage that has brought much-needed perspective, balance, and, yes, second-guessing to a high-profile sector that contributes a hefty chunk of both the nation’s GDP and its time spent.  

So what would Nikki have written after Shell shouted Peacock praises from the rooftops (technically, from a friendly seat on the set of NBCU’s own business-news site, CNBC)? 

To his credit, CNBC’s David Faber noted not only that he was interviewing his “boss’ boss’ boss’ boss,” but that the company’s stock had been downgraded that day by an analyst (Wells Fargo’s Steven Cahall downgraded or reduced price targets for much of Hollywood that day).

Shell quickly pivoted beyond Faber’s question to say Peacock now has over 15 million paying subscribers, up 2 million in just one quarter! Big news! The service also has 30 million “active accounts” watching … something on Peacock, but not paying. For the year, Peacock subscription rolls are up a whopping 70%, Shell enthused. He attributed all that massive progress to a corporate decision not to compete against the ad-free SVOD giants Netflix and Disney Plus. 

“… We decided to enter in a different way,” Shell said. “We entered as kind of a broad, dual-revenue-stream model, which we thought was the more attractive business opportunity, but it happened to fit really well with our company. That’s what we do in our regular business. That’s where our content is. That’s where our advertising strength is. So we launched with all that and we are doing really, really well in that model.”

I’m not clear whether Nikki, had she stayed in the game, would have evolved her understanding of Hollywood business to recognize the importance of streaming. She made her name, in part, writing deeply about the weekly sturm und drang around movie box office numbers.

As the former manager of her Twitter feed and something of a tech whisperer/translator for Deadline for about four years, I can attest to Nikki’s many blind spots regarding technology and Hollywood. That in part reflected the blind spots of her high-level sources, who for years stubbornly continued not to know what they didn’t know. 

But if Nikki had progressed, here’s what I think she might write: Any service with Universal Studios, NBC Entertainment/News/Sports, the Bravo networks, and its own productions, and had managed to attract only 15 million paying customers after two and a half years was doing a really crummy job. She also might have used stronger language.

Disney Plus has around 150 million subscribers since launching six months before Peacock. Netflix has 220 million. Both had quarters where they added more paying customers than Peacock has ever had. Even undersized Paramount Global has done a far better job in about the same period, adding some 43 million to Paramount Plus, and 64 million across all of its services. 

To be sure, Peacock launched with a few handicaps. It counted on the Tokyo Olympics opening a few weeks after it launched to send signups skyward. When the Games were postponed a year, there wasn’t much else to watch on Peacock. Nearly everything else was grounded by pandemic production problems or previous licensing deals. 

Some of that has fixed itself, even if audiences haven’t yet noticed. As Nikki might write, FINALLY!

NBCU stopped being an “arms dealer,” licensing its best stuff to competitors. It finally clawed back from Hulu next-day re-runs of shows such as Saturday Night Live. Peacock also pulled from Hulu thousands of hours of Bravo shows such as the Real Housewives franchise. NBCU also shipped durable day-time soap Days of Our Lives to streaming after five decades on broadcast. 

On the movie side, NBCU continues to experiment with theatrical release windows, going day-and-date with high-profile smaller projects such as the next (allegedly last) Michael Myers gorefest, Halloween Ends. Even bigger films such as the latest Jurassic Park and Minions installments hit Peacock within a couple of weeks, often wrapped in a premium VOD offering. Shell said NBCU’s movie strategy is “very strong!”

On the premium sports side, both the Summer and Winter Olympics Games have been held since launch, featuring thousands of hours of competitions available only on Peacock. That helped signups for a while. The company also signed a pricey exclusive rights deal with the English Premier League, and expensive new deals with the NFL and Big 10 Conference that will put the other game of football on Peacock. 

So everything should be peachy. Except, it’s not really (again, Nikki might/absolutely would use harsher language). Not only is absolute growth anemic compared to competitors, other metrics remain problematic. 

Nikki, like Wall Street analysts and investors, would have snorted when Faber quoted a Bank of America analyst note: “Given the small amount of net (subscriber) adds and lack of buzz around hit shows, we worry — this is the BofA analysts — that Peacock may struggle to hit engagement figures of 10 hours a month, that is per consumer. And they say NBC (had) the greatest potential risk of the companies that they follow in that space.”

When you’re an ad-supported entertainment service, it’s bad when people don’t watch your shows for long. As LightShed Partners regularly points out, all the streaming services, but especially the ad-supported ones, need to opt for a lot of engagement, so they can sell more ads and charge more for the privilege. 

Shell brushed past that to point out that Peacock is doing quite well in another closely watched metric: average revenue per user, at least from the paying customers. 

“We’re doing an ARPU of close to $10 (per month) on our paid subs, which is very healthy,” Shell said, and generating $2 billion in revenue from advertising. That ARPU number indeed is pretty good for the few paying customers. It’s way better, for instance, than the nickels per month that Disney Plus and Netflix extract from many Indian customers. But also, Peacock has lost $2.5 billion in EBITDA since launch. Better get some more high-paying customers soon.

It’s possible that Peacock will be one fit, fine-looking bird by, say, 2024, when everyone in streaming is promising to start making more money than they spend. 

More likely, Nikki might suggest, even as NBCU’s broadcast and cable networks enter free-fall in the next couple of years, Peacock still won’t be anywhere near the size of its competition. And its competitors are all adding their own ad-supported tiers, so they’ll nab a piece of that business too. 

Many analysts think NBCU needs to get bigger by making a large acquisition. But Shell insisted Comcast can stand pat, given its existing holdings, and the way they’re all synergizing so strategically.  

“Sure, if you can make acquisitions for the right strategy and the right price — we’ve been a company that has always made acquisitions as part of our business,” Shell said. But, “…for the people who say we need to do something, we don’t need to do anything.”

To which, I’ll have one thing to say when Comcast takes cash from selling its Hulu stake, and buys Paramount and/or Warner Bros. Discovery to better compete with the far bigger Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Apple. 

That near-inevitable deal will give me a chance to do one last homage to the influential, destructive, transformative, extraordinary, awful Nikki Finke, who once somewhat accidentally gave me a job, and say: TOLDJA!

Peacock has had a pretty good last two months, according to Jeff Shell, the CEO of the streaming service’s parent company, NBCUniversal.

Shell told CNBC’s Squawk Box Tuesday morning that paid Peacock subscribers have now surpassed 15 million and active users have reached 30 million. 

This is a significant turn in fortune given that on July 28, NBCU reported stagnated growth for Peacock of 13 million paid customers and 27 million active users. 

“It’s really driven by the content,” Shell told CNBC’s David Faber. 

Also read: The New, New Fall Season Brings Big Questions For Hulu, Peacock … and Everyone Else (Bloom)

In September, Peacock received a major content infusion, with NBCU moving many of its most streamed shows on joint venture Hulu over to its own streaming service. 

“If you want to watch Saturday Night Live, if you want to watch Real Housewives, if you want to watch The Voice, all of our ‘Chicago’ shows, Dick Wolf shows … those are now coming to Peacock,” Shell said. 

The NBCU CEO also cited the draw of Universal Pictures theatrical titles coming to Peacock over the past few months, including the latest “Minions” and “Jurassic Park” movies, as well as Blumhouse-produced horror film The Black Phone, starring Kevin Bacon. 

And Shell cited the contribution of Peacock’s nonlinear sports rights to the NFL and English Premier League, among other sports entities, too.

Meanwhile, after Q2 losses of $467 million for Peacock took a bite out of NBCU’s stock valuation, Shell also put a positive spin on the financials. 

He noted that Peacock ARPU has reached $10 and that total revenue will reach $2 billion this year. 

“I don’t know a lot of businesses that you’ve covered that in two years have reached the point of $2 billion,” Shell said. 

Asked about the fate of the suddenly very-mortal-appearing linear TV business, he remarked: “Linear is still an incredibly important business — an incredibly important business to consumers, incredibly important business to advertisers. Just look at the NFL, you know, which we just renewed last year. Look at the numbers of the NFL or the Olympics.”

Shell also conceded that NBCU is once again pondering the strategy of giving back the 10 p.m. hour to its affiliates. 

“We’re evaluating a lot of things,” he said. “I mean, when you look at the investment in Peacock — as I mentioned most of the investment is for our own programming putting it on Peacock — but if we’re being prudent operators, which we try to be, right, if you’re allocating a bunch of resources to one part of the business, you have to look at the allocation of resources to another’s. I don’t think we’re ready to make any decision on 10 o’clock or anything else.

“We have a lot of great shows at 10 o’clock,” Shell added. “We make a lot of money at 10 o’clock. We still have a lot of viewers at 10 o’clock. There’s no question throughout the day as linear declines, you’re going to have to make some trade-offs and we’ll be looking at that as our investors would want us to look at.”

Finally, asked about the pending negotiations between NBCU and The Walt Disney Co. over the former’s 30% stake in Hulu, Shell painted NBCU as a seller interested in driving up the price of the asset. 

“It’s a great asset,” he said. “If it was put on the auction block, it would fetch a high price, it would be a pretty robust auction. We would want to participate in the auction; we, like a lot of other people, would want to own Hulu.” ▪️ 

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts got a 4% raise in 2021, with total compensation of $34 million, fueled mainly by a 27% gain in stock awards for the year.

Roberts’ annual salary actually dipped 5% to $3.2 million from $3.4 million in the prior year, but a 27% increase in stock awards -- from $10.6 million to $13.5 million -- helped lift the media chief’s total compensation for the year.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, who oversees the company’s content unit, including its streaming service Peacock, got the biggest lift in total compensation -- 30% -- as his 2021 haul rose to $21.6 million from $16.5 million in the prior year. Shell also saw a slight decline in salary, by 4% to $2.5 million, while a 48.6% increase in stock awards (to $5.5 million from $3.7 million) and a 67% increase in the value of his nonequity incentive plan compensation (to $9.9 million from $5.9 million) more than made up the difference. 

Peacock ended 2021 with 24.5 million monthly active users, about three-quarters of the way towards its 2024 goal of 30 million to 35 million users. The streamer said it would double its content spend in 2022 to $3 billion. NBCUniversal as a whole saw revenue rise 26% in 2021 to $34.3 billion.  

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson made $22.7 million in 2021, a 15.5% increase over the prior year. Watson’s salary rose 10% for the year to $2.2 million from $2 million, but the biggest increase came in stock awards (60% to $6.7 million) and a 51% increase in nonequity incentive plan compensation ($8.9 million from $5.9 million). 

Comcast chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh’s total compensation rose 8.3% for the year to $27.4 million, including $10.1 million in stock awards (a 44% increase) and $8.6 million in nonequity incentive plan compensation. ■

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said that the company is “pretty much done” with its upfront sales.

“It was the strongest upfront I think in the history of NBCUniversal," said Shell, speaking Monday morning at a Credit Suisse investor conference.

“Our approach allowed us to go early in the market and take advantage of the strength of the market,” Shell said.

He said NBCU sold about the same share of its ad inventory as it had in past upfront. “Pricing was extraordinary,” he said, but he did not provide precise numbers for how much prices were up.

He noted that in this upfront, NBCU sold its sports properties as part of its single platform approach. Depending on ratings, Shell said the Tokyo games could be the “most profitable” games the company has had. 

On Friday, the CW finished its upfront sales and recorded price increase of between 19% and 21%, according to sources.

Shell said that the upfront ad market was strong partly because of the shift in ratings points from ad-supported television to non-ad supported streaming. With advertisers coming out of the pandemic looking to advertising, “there’s not as much ratings points available . . . creating a classic supply squeeze,” he said.

He also said that the market was becoming barbell shaped, with large reach at one end of the market and granular precision at the other end. 

“As linear is declining advertisers are trying to reach wherever they can find reach. Reach is difficult to find in the market,” Shell said. “If they can’t get reach, they want granularity of data about who is seeing their ads.”

Peacock, NBCU’s streaming service, has contributed to NBCU’s ability to deliver that kind of data about viewers.

“We launched Peacock, thank god a year ago,” he said, adding that the company chose the right business model, with ads and a free tier.

“We have reach and we have granularity and we sell it as one platform,” he said.

NBCUniversal is getting ad prices for Peacock that exceed NBC primetime on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis, according to NBCU CEO Jeff Shell.

Speaking on parent company Comcast’s earnings call Thursday, Shell said that when Peacock started it sold advertising on a sponsorship model with 10 charter sponsors. 

Peacock is exceeding the impression guarantees made to those sponsors, so NBCU has been able to sell some Peacock commercials on a spot basis this quarter.

“We are achieving CPMs that are equal or in some cases above what we’re getting on NBC prime, which is our gold standard,” Shell said.

Other media companies have said they get higher rates for ads on their streaming services because of low commercial loads and an enhanced ability to target specific viewer segments.

“We’re particularly pleased that we chose this business model, which is an ad-supported AVOD model, he said.

Shell said usage of Peacock is double projections. “To put that in context, the average Peacock MAA (monthly active account) is using Peacock more than an average TV user is watching NBC. We’re very pleased with that."

Comcast announced that Peacock has 42 million signups, up 9 million from last quarter. Of those signups about a third are monthly active accounts, which means they’re either paying a bill or using the service monthly. (Shell said quarterly active accounts would be 10 million higher).

In its first year, Peacock is roughly a third the size of 13-year-old Hulu, Shell said. Comcast is in the process of selling its interest in Hulu to The Walt Disney Co., which owns a controlling interested in Hulu.

Shell said Peacock’s performance is coming despite not getting to carry Olympics programming as expected or much of the original programming it had on its drawing board when it originally launched because of production delays caused by COVID 19.

“The streaming of original programming that we had planned to launch with is really coming in future quarters, so we’re very encourage,” he said.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts saw his total compensation dip about 10% in 2020 to $32.7 million from $36.4 million in the prior year, the result of lower incentives and a change in the interest gained on his pension awards. 

Roberts’ base salary rose slightly to $3.4 million from $3.3 million, and though his stock awards and option awards nearly doubled to $10.58 million and $10.6 million, respectively, those gains were nearly erased by declines in the interest gained on his pension. 

According to Comcast’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission April 23, the interest gained on Roberts’ pension was $150,134 in 2020, compared to $7.6 million in the prior year. Other compensation -- which includes contributions to retirement plans and personal use of company aircraft -- was significantly less, dropping to about $200,158 from $4.9 million in the prior year. 

Also Read: Comcast Touts 4G Speeds from DOCSIS 4 Device

Roberts also saw his non-equity incentives decline from $9.9 million in 2019 to $7.7 million in 2020.

Chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh’s total compensation dipped about 5.8% to $25.25 million from $26.8 million, mainly due to a decline in “other” compensation. Cavanagh received $62,088 in other compensation in 2020, compared to $2.28 million in 2021.

 Jeff Shell, who was named CEO of NBCUniversal last year, received $16.5 million in total compensation in 2020, including a base salary of $2.6 million, stock and option awards of $3.7 million each, respectively and a non-equity incentives valued at $5.9 million. There was no comparison in the proxy to the previous year. 

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson was the only senior executive who saw an overall increase in compensation, with his total take rising 16.7% to $19.7 million from $16.9 in the previous year. Watson, who received 100% of his annual bonus due to record performance at the cable unit, got a  big lift in non-equity incentive compensation (to $5.9 million from $4.6 million). His stock awards and option awards rose nearly $1 million each in the period, to $4.2 million each, respectively. 

All four executives also donated 100% of their salaries from April 1 to Sept. 30 to charities supporting COVID-19 relief efforts. According to the proxy, that amounted to $1.7 million for Roberts, $1.2 million for Cavanagh; $1 million for Watson and $1.25 million for Shell. 

Despite huge disruptions to its original programming plans, which included the scuttling of numerous original shows and the Tokyo Summer Olympics because of the pandemic, Peacock is officially off to a hot start.

Comcast said during its Q4/full 2020 earnings call Thursday morning that the AVOD/SVOD hybrid streaming service has amassed 33 million signups, up from a declaration of 26 million made in early December. Comcast and the media division that houses Peacock, NBCUniversal,  had projected that the streaming service would get to 30 million to 35 million users in around 2024.

The happy Peacock news was in direct contrast to the downer year for the broader NBCU portfolio, which saw an 18% revenue decline in Q4 to $7.5 billion. Fourth-quarter sales across cable (-6.4%), broadcast (-12%), filmed entertainment (-8.3%) and theme parks (-62.9%) were all down, as they were for most of the full pandemic year of 2020. 

“We’ve had 10 wonderful years of growth at NBCUniversal, but last year was the exception to that,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, trying to assure media investment analysts that the media unit will return to growth once the pandemic eases. 

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Comcast said that starting in the second quarter, it will combine NBCU reporting for Peacock with NBCU’s broadcast and cable TV sectors. 

“We view our television biz as whole. While our recent restructuring took a lot of cost out of business … the real purpose of it was to allow us to grow in the future,” said NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said. “We’re now looking at subscription and advertising as one business. We’re selling it to advertisers as one platform. We’re programming it as one platform. It’s harder and harder over time to distinguish profitability because we’re  running it as one business.”

As the pandemic has forced NBCU to refocus its Peacock programming strategy on classic reruns like The Office and canned sports—or quasi-sports—like the WWE, Shell said the conglomerate is finding that programming the streaming service has similarities to classic broadcast network methodology. 

Usage of The Office, he said, is probably higher on Peacock than it was on the much larger Netflix, on which the show was a bonafide hit up until it switched platforms on Dec. 31. 

As Peacock users have binged on The Office, Shell explained, they’ve found other comedies on the platform, such as Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. 

“We believe there’s kind of an ecosystem here like the world of broadcast,” Shell added. “We can cross-promote things and lead viewers around.”

Shell also described the acquisition of World Wrestling Entertainment rights for Peacock, announced earlier this week, as the “perfect opportunity” for NBCU’s new alignment, noting that the USA Network has been showing WWE programming for years. 

Notably, Shell refers to Peacock as an “AVOD” service. The platform offers a limited iteration free to consumers. Those who pay $4.99 a month get a much broader selection of content, with advertising. Those who pay $9.99 a month don’t have to watch any ads at all. 

More than a full year before its national launch, NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock made one of its first big programming deals, paying $500 million over five years to outbid incumbent streaming service Netflix to secure exclusive U.S. streaming rights to The Office.

Speaking Tuesday to investors about the pocket-to-pocket transaction that will deliver the NBCU-produced single-camera classic series to Peacock starting on Jan. 1, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said, “If you try to watch The Office on Netflix right now, it’s pretty hard to find.”

Maybe not hard enough?

Backing Shell’s assertion: A Netflix user can scroll through "TV comedies" from left to right all day, and the nine seasons of The Office that are still very much alive on the No. 1 SVOD service will not surface. 

Ditto, the show doesn’t appear in the “Top 10 in the U.S. Today” section of the Netflix home screen.

It’s understandable that Netflix wouldn’t want to throw valuable promotional resources to a show that will leave its platform and surface on a competitor in a manner of weeks. But the lack of visibility for boss Michael Scott, Jim, Pam and the rest of the Duner Mifflin staff seems to be at odds with the viewership of the show as measured by outside arbitors.

Notably, The Office has regularly appeared as a top show week after week in Nielsen’s top 10 ranking of the most viewed SVOD shows, which ranks programs based on aggregate minutes watched in a given week. 

For the most recent Nielsen ranking—the week ending Nov. 8—The Office was No. 2 with 192 episodes generating 1.093 billion minutes of viewing time, trailing only Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit. 

Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit has begun a substantial round of layoffs that could mean the loss of more than 1,000 jobs in the middle of a pandemic.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the layoffs are expected to be less than 10% of NBCU’s 35,000 full-time employees. Jobs are being cut in nearly all parts of the company, including its TV channels, movie studio and theme parks.

NBCU reported profits of $1.6 billions in the second quarter, down 30%, as revenues fell 25.4% to $6.1 billion.

During the company’s earnings call, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell announced plans to restructure the businesses under Mark Lazarus, who was named chairman, NBCU Television and Streaming, in May. 

“Mark is finalizing a new structure that will demonstrate the unique way we intend to manage this business going forward,” Shell said. “We will announce the structure soon.”

Management changes are coming at NBCUniversal as it works to coordinate its linear and non-linear businesses, according to Jeff Shell, who became CEO of Comcast’s NBCU earlier this year.

Speaking on Comcast’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday, Shell noted that NBCU combined its television and streaming businesses under Mark Lazarus, who was named chairman, NBCU Television and Streaming in May.

“Mark is finalizing a new structure that will demonstrate the unique way we intend to manage this business going forward,” Shell said. “We will announce the structure soon.”

Related: Peacock Set to Launch to Comcast Subscribers

Shell noted that NBCU could not be more pleased with the launch of its new streaming service Peacock, which launched to Comcast subscribers in April and became available nationwide two weeks ago and has already registered 10 million signups.

“Not only are more people signing up than we projected, but they are watching more frequently and engaging much longer than we projected," he said. He noted that there was more movie watching than expected.

He noted that more programming would be coming to Peacock in January, including exclusive rights to The Office.

Next year, Peacock will be able to take advantage of NBCU’s coverage of the Tokyo summer Olympics, which were postponed, as well as the winter Olympics from Beijing a few months later.

“We feel very encouraged,” he said.

Shell noted that the company believes it can get its production of scripted programming going again later this summer.

“When combined with sports that are returning, we will have a full schedule of fresh and compelling programming on our various platforms in the fall,” he said. "At the same time, he said upfront conversation are in full swing and the ad market "is coming back more rapidly than we anticipated."

Comcast officials said the soft launch of NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service has been better than expected, but added that it will not accelerate plans to fully launch the offering on July 15.

Two weeks ago, just prior to Peacock's soft launch, platform chairman Matt Strauss said NBCU was mulling an accelerated launch given the current high shelter-in-place audience levels. 

Peacock launched to Comcast XFinity X1 cable customers and its Flex broadband-only subscribers on April 15. While the soft launch is only a few weeks old, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said he was happy with customer adoption and their engagement with the service.

“The early results are very, very encouraging, particularly the amount of time that each person is spending on the platform,” Shell said on a conference call with analysts to discuss Q1 results.

Also read: Comcast’s Peacock Streaming Service Created From Traditional TV’s Winning Recipe

But he added that there are no plans to launch the product nationwide any sooner.

“We’re in a marathon not a sprint,” Shell said. “We have an ad supported service, we don't see the value [in accelerating the national launch] and we’re not trying to gain subscribers and we want to make sure the product is right before we launch in July. This is kind of a measured strategy on our part and I think it’s the right strategy for Peacock and we’re very encouraged and even more optimistic on it long term.”

Related: Peacock Shows Its Plumage 

Peacock is free to Comcast and Cox (which licenses X1) cable customers -- it will cost about $4.99 per month to customers outside of its footprint -- and features about 15,000 hours of series, movies and other content from NBCUniversal networks and libraries. That list will expand later this year and in 2021 to include original shows and full seasons of past and present NBC broadcast series like The Office and This Is Us.

Comcast officials said the soft launch of NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service has been better than expected, but added that it will not accelerate plans to fully launch the offering on July 15.

Peacock launched to Comcast XFinity X1 cable customers and its Flex broadband-only subscribers on April 15. While the soft launch is only a few weeks old, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said he was happy with customer adoption and their engagement with the service.

“The early results are very, very encouraging, particularly the amount of time that each person is spending on the platform,” Shell said on a conference call with analysts to discuss Q1 results.

But he added that there are no plans to launch the product nationwide any sooner.

“We’re in a marathon not a sprint,” Shell said. “We have an ad supported service, we don't see the value [in accelerating the national launch] and we’re not trying to gain subscribers and we want to make sure the product is right before we launch in July. This is kind of a measured strategy on our part and I think it’s the right strategy for Peacock and we’re very encouraged and even more optimistic on it long term.”

Related: Peacock Shows Its Plumage 

Peacock is free to Comcast and Cox (which licenses X1) cable customers -- it will cost about $4.99 per month to customers outside of its footprint -- and features about 15,000 hours of series, movies and other content from NBCUniversal networks and libraries. That list will expand later this year and in 2021 to include original shows and full seasons of past and present NBC broadcast series like The Office and This Is Us.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has tested positive for COVID-19 and let company staffers know in a memo Thursday morning.

Shell also said that despite the disruptions to the company’s business, the company was pledging $150 million to support employees and other staffers during the crisis.

“I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for COVID-19. Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in L.A. and am improving every day,” Shell said in the memo.

Shell noted that an NBC News audio technician, Larry Edgeworth, passed away from the virus last week.

He added that NBC News has an important role to play in providing the public with information about the crisis that is resulting from the spread of the virus.

“Given the vital public service role of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo and our local stations, many of our colleagues need to go into the office so we can tell the world what is going on. Their courage has been an inspiration and has made us all proud to work at this company. I want to thank this group for their dedication and commitment,” he said. “I also want to commend our Operations and Technology group, which has seamlessly kept us on the air and enabled us to work remotely under challenging circumstances.”

In the memo, Shell noted that most of NBCU’s business are being impacted, with its theme parks closed, sports productions paused, film and TV production suspended and the Olympics postponed.

“We are working to resume these activities as soon as possible, but of course not until it is safe to do so,” he said. “In the meantime, we recognize that a sudden halt to production creates a significant financial hardship for many. To that end, we have committed over $150 million across our film, television and parks businesses to help our employees and other workers, and to at least partially bridge the period before normal operations can restart.”

Shell said the company has found innovative ways to deliver content to audiences, including making its films available on VOD platforms.

“So here is the good news,” he added. “While the short term is challenging, what comes after looks incredibly bright. Our parent company Comcast is strong and is doing a great job keeping a large part of this country connected. And when we think ahead to 2021, we have a lot to look forward to. The virus will pass, our world will return to normal, and when it does, we will be poised to have one of the busiest and most exciting years in our company’s history. “

Here is the text of Shell’s memo:

It’s hard to believe my last note to you was just two weeks ago. I know many of you share the feeling that lately each day feels like a week! We will all get through this difficult time together, but as we start to settle into our new normal, I find it helpful to think about things in two buckets: the short term, and what comes after.

In the short term, the goals are simple. Take care of each other and take care of our viewers. Taking care of each other means working from home. Many of you, like me, are working from home while trying to balance family commitments and other challenges, and I know this isn’t easy. But for those of you who can do your jobs from home, it is absolutely critical that you do so. This will be the case for some time. While I can’t give you an end date, I can commit that we will give everyone ample warning before we ask you to return to the office.

The other reason to work from home is that in the event you contract the virus, it will limit the number of your colleagues you inadvertently expose. As some of you now know, I myself am in this category. I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for Covid-19. Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in LA and am improving every day.

Unfortunately, one of our colleagues was not able to recover from the virus. Last week we learned Larry Edgeworth, a beloved audio technician at NBC News, passed away, and our hearts go out to his family, friends and co-workers.

Given the vital public service role of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo and our local stations, many of our colleagues need to go into the office so we can tell the world what is going on. Their courage has been an inspiration and has made us all proud to work at this company. I want to thank this group for their dedication and commitment. I also want to commend our Operations and Technology group, which has seamlessly kept us on the air and enabled us to work remotely under challenging circumstances.

From morning to late night, our talent and news anchors have also been doing their part to inform and entertain from their homes. From Savannah reporting from her basement and Al doing the weather from his living room to Jimmy performing his monologue on his front steps and Seth hosting his new segment, A Closer Look, from home to Maria Celeste hosting Al Rojo Vivo from her dining room, and many CNBC, local stations and E! News correspondents reporting from home as well – we continue to deliver the best in live news and entertainment, despite the circumstances.

Additionally, to disseminate our news as widely as possible, we have made MSNBC and CNBC available to all video customers, regardless of their subscription package. Plus, our streaming service NBC News Now has expanded its coverage and our local stations are also streaming their newscasts.

Obviously, most of our business is not operating normally. Our theme parks are temporarily closed. Our sports productions are paused, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed. And most of our film and TV production around the world has been suspended. We are working to resume these activities as soon as possible, but of course not until it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we recognize that a sudden halt to production creates a significant financial hardship for many. To that end, we have committed over $150 million across our film, television and parks businesses to help our employees and other workers, and to at least partially bridge the period before normal operations can restart.

Despite these production challenges, the company has done a great job finding innovative ways to deliver content to our audiences at a time when people are at home and are looking for entertainment more than ever. On the film side, we announced our movies will be available in the home on the same day as their global theatrical releases. Titles including The Hunt, The Invisible Man and Emma are now available to rent on most popular on-demand services worldwide. Our tentpole animated film from DreamWorks Animation, Trolls World Tour, will be available April 10th and I hope many of you will have time to enjoy it at home with your families.

So here is the good news...while the short term is challenging, what comes after looks incredibly bright. Our parent company Comcast is strong and is doing a great job keeping a large part of this country connected. And when we think ahead to 2021, we have a lot to look forward to. The virus will pass, our world will return to normal, and when it does, we will be poised to have one of the busiest and most exciting years in our company’s history.

2021 will bring the opening of a new theme park in Beijing, followed by the Tokyo Olympics (followed in early 2022 by another Olympics, a Super Bowl and the World Cup!). We will have the return of our tentpole films like F9 and Minions: The Rise Of Gru, and an avalanche of new TV shows. And all of this will serve to supercharge our critically important Peacock streaming service, which will launch as planned this year while people are home, and then use promotion like the world has never seen in 2021 to grow. The present may be challenging, but it is impossible not to feel optimistic about the future.

In the meantime, please continue to take care of yourselves. I recognize how challenging these times are for everyone – both professionally and personally – and appreciate all that you do for this company.

Sincerely,

Jeff

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has tested positive for COVID-19 and let company staffers know in a memo Thursday morning.

Shell also said that despite the disruptions to the company’s business, the company was pledging $150 million to support employees and other staffers during the crisis.

“I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for COVID-19. Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in L.A. and am improving every day,” Shell said in the memo.

Shell noted that an NBC News audio technician, Larry Edgeworth, passed away from the virus last week.

He added that NBC News has an important role to play in providing the public with information about the crisis that is resulting from the spread of the virus.

“Given the vital public service role of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo and our local stations, many of our colleagues need to go into the office so we can tell the world what is going on. Their courage has been an inspiration and has made us all proud to work at this company. I want to thank this group for their dedication and commitment,” he said. “I also want to commend our Operations and Technology group, which has seamlessly kept us on the air and enabled us to work remotely under challenging circumstances.”

In the memo, Shell noted that most of NBCU’s business are being impacted, with its theme parks closed, sports productions paused, film and TV production suspended and the Olympics postponed.

“We are working to resume these activities as soon as possible, but of course not until it is safe to do so,” he said. “In the meantime, we recognize that a sudden halt to production creates a significant financial hardship for many. To that end, we have committed over $150 million across our film, television and parks businesses to help our employees and other workers, and to at least partially bridge the period before normal operations can restart.”

Shell said the company has found innovative ways to deliver content to audiences, including making its films available on VOD platforms.

“So here is the good news,” he added. “While the short term is challenging, what comes after looks incredibly bright. Our parent company Comcast is strong and is doing a great job keeping a large part of this country connected. And when we think ahead to 2021, we have a lot to look forward to. The virus will pass, our world will return to normal, and when it does, we will be poised to have one of the busiest and most exciting years in our company’s history. “

Here is the text of Shell’s memo:

It’s hard to believe my last note to you was just two weeks ago. I know many of you share the feeling that lately each day feels like a week! We will all get through this difficult time together, but as we start to settle into our new normal, I find it helpful to think about things in two buckets: the short term, and what comes after.

In the short term, the goals are simple. Take care of each other and take care of our viewers. Taking care of each other means working from home. Many of you, like me, are working from home while trying to balance family commitments and other challenges, and I know this isn’t easy. But for those of you who can do your jobs from home, it is absolutely critical that you do so. This will be the case for some time. While I can’t give you an end date, I can commit that we will give everyone ample warning before we ask you to return to the office.

The other reason to work from home is that in the event you contract the virus, it will limit the number of your colleagues you inadvertently expose. As some of you now know, I myself am in this category. I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for Covid-19. Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in LA and am improving every day.

Unfortunately, one of our colleagues was not able to recover from the virus. Last week we learned Larry Edgeworth, a beloved audio technician at NBC News, passed away, and our hearts go out to his family, friends and co-workers.

Given the vital public service role of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo and our local stations, many of our colleagues need to go into the office so we can tell the world what is going on. Their courage has been an inspiration and has made us all proud to work at this company. I want to thank this group for their dedication and commitment. I also want to commend our Operations and Technology group, which has seamlessly kept us on the air and enabled us to work remotely under challenging circumstances.

From morning to late night, our talent and news anchors have also been doing their part to inform and entertain from their homes. From Savannah reporting from her basement and Al doing the weather from his living room to Jimmy performing his monologue on his front steps and Seth hosting his new segment, A Closer Look, from home to Maria Celeste hosting Al Rojo Vivo from her dining room, and many CNBC, local stations and E! News correspondents reporting from home as well – we continue to deliver the best in live news and entertainment, despite the circumstances.

Additionally, to disseminate our news as widely as possible, we have made MSNBC and CNBC available to all video customers, regardless of their subscription package. Plus, our streaming service NBC News Now has expanded its coverage and our local stations are also streaming their newscasts.

Obviously, most of our business is not operating normally. Our theme parks are temporarily closed. Our sports productions are paused, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed. And most of our film and TV production around the world has been suspended. We are working to resume these activities as soon as possible, but of course not until it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we recognize that a sudden halt to production creates a significant financial hardship for many. To that end, we have committed over $150 million across our film, television and parks businesses to help our employees and other workers, and to at least partially bridge the period before normal operations can restart.

Despite these production challenges, the company has done a great job finding innovative ways to deliver content to our audiences at a time when people are at home and are looking for entertainment more than ever. On the film side, we announced our movies will be available in the home on the same day as their global theatrical releases. Titles including The Hunt, The Invisible Man and Emma are now available to rent on most popular on-demand services worldwide. Our tentpole animated film from DreamWorks Animation, Trolls World Tour, will be available April 10th and I hope many of you will have time to enjoy it at home with your families.

So here is the good news...while the short term is challenging, what comes after looks incredibly bright. Our parent company Comcast is strong and is doing a great job keeping a large part of this country connected. And when we think ahead to 2021, we have a lot to look forward to. The virus will pass, our world will return to normal, and when it does, we will be poised to have one of the busiest and most exciting years in our company’s history.

2021 will bring the opening of a new theme park in Beijing, followed by the Tokyo Olympics (followed in early 2022 by another Olympics, a Super Bowl and the World Cup!). We will have the return of our tentpole films like F9 and Minions: The Rise Of Gru, and an avalanche of new TV shows. And all of this will serve to supercharge our critically important Peacock streaming service, which will launch as planned this year while people are home, and then use promotion like the world has never seen in 2021 to grow. The present may be challenging, but it is impossible not to feel optimistic about the future.

In the meantime, please continue to take care of yourselves. I recognize how challenging these times are for everyone – both professionally and personally – and appreciate all that you do for this company.

Sincerely,

Jeff

Comcast said Monday that NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke will step down from that role on Jan. 1, replaced by NBC Film and Entertainment head Jeff Shell, and becoming chairman of NBCU until his retirement in August.

Burke, who has been at Comcast for more than 20 years, will officially step down on August 14, after the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. After that date, Shell will report directly to Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

Variety first reported that Burke would retire and be replaced by Shell. 

“I cannot thank Steve enough for the incredible impact he has had on this entire company,” Roberts said in a press release. “I will miss Steve’s trusted partnership, and I know I speak for both myself and my late father Ralph when I say that we will be forever grateful to him for shaping first Comcast and then NBCUniversal into the great companies they are today. ”

Shell, who joined Comcast in 2005 from News Corp. (Now Fox Corp.), to lead the company’s Programming Group, has served in several roles at the company, most recently overseeing the company’s film and network television businesses including NBC Entertainment, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG), Telemundo and NBCUniversal International. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of UFEG and led the film division to record profit crossing the $5 billion mark in global box office in both 2015 and 2017.

Since 2005, Shell has led several different Comcast units, serving as chairman of NBCUniversal International, where he managed International TV Distribution, Global Television Networks and International Television Production, as well as CNBC International, International Theatrical Marketing and Distribution, International Home Entertainment and International Theme Parks Operations.

“Jeff Shell is the ideal executive to take the helm at NBCUniversal,” Robert continued. “He has a stellar track record across both the film and TV side of the business, as well as a wealth of international experience. I have worked closely with Jeff for many years and he is an extraordinary leader who inspires loyalty, delivers strong results and cares deeply about our company, its employees and partners. I could not be more confident in his ability to lead NBCUniversal into the future.”

Burke’s departure come as NBCU readies the launch of its streaming video service Peacock in April. Burke took the helm of NBCU after Comcast purchased a majority interest in the programmer in 2011, leading it through an unprecedented period of growth. 

“This is a very special company and I am proud of the people I have worked with and the things we have accomplished together,” Burke said in a press release. “While this has been a dream job, it has always been my plan to hand off the baton at the right moment and move on to the next chapter of my life where I can pursue a different set of interests. It is great to know I am leaving the company in terrific hands with Jeff, who is the right leader to usher in the next phase of growth and success for NBCUniversal.”

NBCUniversal has appointed three of its top executives to the Hulu board, following the lifting of 2011 Justice Department restrictions at the end of August.

Joining the board of the jointly owned streaming platform include Universal Filmed Entertainment chairman Jeff Shell, advertising and client partnerships chair Linda Yaccarino and content distribution chairman Matt Bond. The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

NBCUniversal owns 30% of Hulu, along with Disney-ABC (30%), 21st Century Fox (30%) and WarnerMedia (10%). Disney’s proposed $71 billion takeover of Fox’s entertainment assets would make it the controlling owner.

Related: Hulu's Losses More Than Doubled in Q2 to $357M

As a condition tied to Comcast’s 2011 purchase of NBCU, Comcast was required to take a silent ownership position.

But it now re-assumes a voice on the board of directors, that also includes Disney direct-to-consumer and international chairman Kevin Mayer and Fox Networks Group chairman Peter Rice.

And Hulu is at an interesting point of inflection, having reached 20 million subscribers, launched a global original-series hit in The Handmaid’s Tale, and garnered critical acclaim with 27 Emmy nominations over the summer.

Hulu is spending aggressively as it expands its original slate, upgrades its technology and competes in the competitive live-streaming market. And Comcast would certainly like a say in where the money is going.

Comcast revealed in a June regulatory filing that it lost $107 million in Hulu in the second quarter.