NBC Execs Talk Up Comcast Synergy In A “New Era For Media”

The broadcast network is “firing on all cylinders” as it ends the season No. 1 in its 18-to-49 target audience, NBCUniversal Advertising Sales President Linda Yaccarino says. But the network’s main business pitch at its upfront presentation this morning was familiar to anyone who showed up last year: As part of Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, NBC offers far more corporate synergies than its broadcast peers, presenting buyers with opportunities to make a “portfolio wide investment” from one sales team in “the most amazing collection of brands ever assembled,” she says. “We proved it. It works. It works by a mile.” Yaccarino pointed to Comcast’s Project Symphony broadcast-cable-digital-movie-theme park-cable system promotions for Universal’s Despicable Me, the Olympics, and NBC’s The Blacklist. (Telemundo and NBC’s cable channels will make separate presentations to ad buyers this week.)

Related: NBC Upfronts Presentation 2014: Live-Blog

NBC couldn’t ignore the Internet following weeks of NewFront presentations from tech companies including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL that want to lure ad dollars from TV to their online video productions.”You’ll see much more growth in digital investments” in “a new era in media” for Comcast, the sales chief says. She touted investments in the “NBCU+ Powered by Comcast” initiative that offers buyers targeted VOD ads and data from its cable set top boxes. The company offers “more ways to measure our success, like no other company can do.” (more…)