NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC, abbreviated as NBCU, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is mostly involved in the media and entertainment industry, named for its two most significant divisions: the National Broadcasting Company —one of the United States' Big Three television networks—and Universal Pictures, one of the major Hollywood film studios.
It also has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including Bravo, Telemundo, and Universo, the streaming service Peacock and ownership stakes in Snap Inc. and Vox Media. Via its Universal Destinations & Experiences division, NBCUniversal is also the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world.
NBCUniversal was created on May 11, 2004, as NBC Universal, Inc. on November 8, 2004, when Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment to the now-defunct General Electric, NBC's then-owner. The sale gave Vivendi a 20% stake in NBC Universal, while GE held the remaining 80%. Comcast attained 51% and thereby control of the newly reformed NBCUniversal in 2011, by acquiring shares from GE, with GE buying out Vivendi's stake. Since 2013, the company has been wholly owned by Comcast, which bought the remaining 49% of the company from GE.
History
Early history
and Universal Television had a partnership dating back to 1950, when Universal Television's earliest ancestor, Revue Studios, produced a number of shows for NBC, although Revue would have hits on other networks as well. This partnership continued throughout a number of name changes and changes of ownership.Television
NBC Universal Television has its modern roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC, whose full legal name was National Broadcasting Company, Inc. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, including the formation of two NBC-owned cable-television networks: CNBC and America's Talking. NBC also had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV.In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a financial news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, MSNBC. A separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC.com.
In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co. The two companies combined their financial news channels outside the United States. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, and CNBC Africa.
In 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, Paxson Communications.
In 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which includes the bilingual Mun2 Television for $1.98 billion. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo.
Combining with Universal
In 2004, amid a major financial crisis caused by over-expansion, Universal Studios' parent company, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, decided to sell an 80% stake in itself to NBC's parent company, General Electric. The sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi. The Universal Music Group was not included in the deal and is not part of NBC Universal.On August 2, 2004, the television divisions of NBC and Universal Television were combined to form NBC Universal Television. Entertainment shows produced by the new group included The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live.
The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversaw the distribution, marketing, and advertisement sales for thirteen channels. It also owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012.
Global expansion
In the early 1990s, NBC began its expansion throughout Europe by creating CNBC Europe and its long-time successful NBC Europe Superstation by broadcasting NBC Giga throughout Germany and the rest of the European Union. NBC Europe helped to develop the Leipzig-based Games Convention, the largest European video game exposition with more than 100,000 visitors each year.In 2005, NBC Universal joined HANA, the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance to help establish standards in consumer electronics interoperability. Later that year, NBC Universal announced a partnership with Apple Computer to offer shows from all the NBC Universal TV networks on Apple's iTunes Store.
In January 2006, NBC Universal launched a new cable channel, Sleuth, later rebranded as Cloo. One year after Sleuth's debut, NBC Universal announced that the company would launch a horror-themed cable channel, Chiller, on March 1, 2007.
On June 14, 2007, NBC Universal Television Studio was renamed Universal Media Studios. The company explained that the reason for the name change was because "the new name fully describes the company's mission to be the premier content provider for television and digital platforms, spanning all television parts and creative genres."
In August 2007, NBC Universal purchased Sparrowhawk Media Group and renamed it NBC Universal Global Networks. This acquisition gave NBC Universal all Hallmark channels outside the United States, plus the English channels Diva TV, Movies 24, Hallmark Channel and KidsCo. Later that fall, the company also acquired the Oxygen network in a separate $925 million deal. The sale was completed one month later.
In the summer of 2008, NBC Universal, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital announced their intention to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications. The deal closed on September 12, 2008. Shortly after the acquisition was completed, NBC announced that its existing TV weather network, NBC Weather Plus, would be shut down by December 31, 2008.
In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions split off from Universal Media Studios and moved into NBCUniversal's NBCU Cable Entertainment division.
The summer of 2008 marked NBC Universal's first venture into the United Kingdom with the acquisition of English television production company Carnival Films.
On November 12, 2008, NBC Universal acquired 80.1% of Geneon Entertainment from Dentsu in Japan, merging it with Universal Pictures Japan to form a new company, Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan.
On March 16, 2009, NBC Universal-owned cable channel Sci Fi announced that it would be changing its name to Syfy, replacing a generic term with a proprietary brand name that was able to be trademarked. The re-branding and name change took place on July 7, 2009.
On August 27, 2009, A&E Television Networks merged with Lifetime Entertainment Services, giving NBC Universal an equal share of both Lifetime and A&E with The Walt Disney Company and Hearst.
On October 20, 2010, NBC Universal-owned horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller announced a major rebranding campaign incorporating a new logo and on-air look that launched on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Syfy and Chiller President Dave Howe said, "We have very ambitious plans to grow this network as a brand." The channel would shut down in 2017.
Ownership by Comcast (2011–present)
On December 3, 2009, after months of rumors, a deal was formally announced in which Comcast would buy a stake in NBC Universal from GE for $6.5 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses, pending regulatory approval. Under the agreement, NBC Universal would be controlled with a 51% stake by Comcast and GE would retain the remaining 49%. The deal includes a provision under which Comcast must contribute $7.5 billion in programming, including regional sports networks and cable channels such as Golf Channel, Versus, and E! Entertainment Television. GE used some of the funds, $5.8 billion, to buy out Vivendi's 20% minority stake in NBC Universal. Under the terms of the deal, Comcast reserved the right to buy out GE's share at certain times, and GE reserved the right to force the sale of its stake within the first seven years. Vivendi completed the initial transaction on September 27, 2010, selling a $2 billion stake to GE.U.S. regulators approved the proposed sale on January 18, 2011, with conditions. Comcast would have to give up NBC control over online video site Hulu and ensure NBC Universal programming is available to competing cable operators. The company unveiled a new logo designed by Wolff Olins, which replaced a logo featuring the NBC peacock and an invocation of the Universal Pictures globe, with a wordmark. The company also began to stylize its name in CamelCase as "NBCUniversal" rather than "NBC Universal", to reflect the unity of its two main divisions.
On January 26, 2011, Vivendi sold the remaining 20% of NBC Universal to GE, giving GE complete control of the company ahead of the completion of the sale of 51% of the company to Comcast on January 28, 2011. Comcast and GE formed the joint venture holding company NBCUniversal, LLC. NBC Universal, Inc. became a unit of Comcast and adopted the name NBCUniversal Media, LLC, on January 29, 2011.
Comcast had planned to buy out GE's 49% stake over the following seven years, but ownership of NBCUniversal remained split at 51–49% for two years, until the announcement on February 12, 2013, that Comcast intended to complete the $16.7 billion purchase ahead of time all immediately. The sale was completed on March 19, 2013.
The corporation, on July 19, 2012, formed the NBCUniversal News Group with the NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC divisions. That same year, Comcast sold its stake in A&E Networks to Disney and Hearst, making the company a 50-50 joint venture.
In February 2013, NBCUniversal merged its two cable divisions, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment & Cable Studios and NBCUniversal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media, into one unit while moving out Telemundo and Mun2 to a new division, NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises and Content. The move also created the corporate-level position of executive vice president in charge of digital ventures. In July, the company placed NBC TV Stations and Telemundo's O&Os stations into a new division, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, with New England Cable News being transferred into NBC TV Stations.
On December 16, 2015, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Skoll of Participant Media, Anil Ambani of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and Darren Throop of Entertainment One founded Amblin Partners, which would primarily focus on producing and distributing films and television using the DreamWorks Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Participant Media brands. On the same day as the company's formation, Amblin Partners announced that it entered into a five-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures by which the films would be distributed and marketed by either the main Universal banner or its specialty label, Focus Features. The Girl on the Train was the first film released under the deal, following the expiration of the former's distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures with the release of The Light Between Oceans in August 2016.
On April 28, 2016, two days after The Wall Street Journal reported that NBCUniversal's parent-company Comcast was in talks with then-CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg about an acquisition following failed 2014 merger talks with Hasbro and SoftBank, NBCUniversal officially announced to acquire DreamWorks Animation for a total of $3.8 billion. Universal Pictures took over the distribution for DreamWorks Animation films after its deal with 20th Century Fox expired, following the release of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie in 2017. The sale was approved by board members, but was subject to regulatory approval. On June 21, 2016, the acquisition was approved by the United States Department of Justice. On August 22, 2016, the acquisition was completed with DreamWorks Animation now completely owned by Universal Pictures. That allowed Universal rights to both DreamWorks Animation and Illumination films beginning in 2019. DWA's first film to be distributed by Universal was How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The company later sold its stake in A&E to Disney and Hearst, making it a 50-50 joint venture.
On February 15, 2017, NBCUniversal acquired a minority stake in Amblin Partners, strengthening the relationship between Universal and Amblin, and reuniting a minority percentage of the live-action DreamWorks Pictures label with its former DreamWorks Animation division.
On February 28, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it would acquire the remaining 49% stake in the Universal Studios Japan theme park that it did not own.
On May 1, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that Sprout would be relaunched as Universal Kids on September 9, 2017. Universal Kids would later cease operations on March 6, 2025.