NBC Head Seeks Top-to-Bottom Review of FCC Media Regulation

Zucker urged a top-to-bottom FCC review. “We have seen a series of isolated and disconnected responses based on outdated assumptions, rather than policy that is comprehensive and forward looking,” he said. “ There are so many more competitors in the marketplace today that were not there when the laws were written five, ten, 20 years ago, but the rules that define the way networks do business have not been revisited. And the rules they choose to enforce because of the political winds of the day seem very outdated. It will take an organization without a political bent to take a look at those policies and I think it’s long overdue.” Zucker said cable needs no more regulation, but “there needs to be a standardization between cable and broadcast.”

The interruption caused by the WGA strike gave industry a chance to reflect, Zucker said: “The strike is only the most visible sign of upheaval. Traditional business models are being challenged and their replacements are not ready for prime time,” he said. “It has always been the case that broadcast TV has always had a bright future. But I can’t come today with the cliches of the endurance of broadcast. It has to change. We are in a wrenching change from analog to digital and that demands a re-engineering of our business.”

Until recently, need for rapid change “was disguised by a strong ad market,” Zucker said. “This strike has presented us with an interesting paradox. It would have been better if there had been no strike. But it’s our industry’s version of a forest fire,” in that from the damage will emerge greater opportunity for growth. Networks and studios “can no longer lock producers into long term deals,” he said. “They can no longer ignore opportunities with international distribution and new media platforms. They must transform the cost structure of their business.”

Zucker said NBC primetime is “committed to as much scripted programming as ever. Without original content the network would lose too much downstream revenue… Last year a half billion dollars were spent on eighty pilots. Out of those, eight -- one in ten -- returned. And none were a huge success.” The system that’s been around for 20, 30, 40 years needs to advance and evolve, he said.

Zucker proposes to order more series “straight to air like they do in Britain, where there are no pilots… The odds of success are just as good going straight to series,” and he said the network can do a six-episode series for the price of one pilot. NBC will use a combination of pilots and direct to air intended for year round programming.

Zucker predicted mistakes, but said the network will learn and ultimately prosper from them. He doesn’t expect other major broadcast networks to follow suit, at least for now. “If you're looking at what your competitors are doing you're probably making a mistake.” Kathleen Tracy

NATPE Notebook…

It will be at least two years before there’s a reasonable, functional digital home video library system, experts predicted Tuesday at the NATPE conference. Most of the obstacles involve hardware. Evan Young, TiVo director of broadband, said even a terabyte of storage holds only about forty movies, so compression is required. Hardware prices must come down and devices must be able to support software capable of managing this kind of system. What the digital living room can do must be figured out from what consumers want and who will produce it, said Allan McLennan, PADEM Group president. Another issue is preserving purchased content. Blair Westlake, Microsoft corporate vice president of media and entertainment, said: “If you invest hundreds of dollars in DVDs, even if you lose one, you still know that the rest are safe.” That’s not the case with an all-in-one system like the panelists proposed. If it crashes, everything could be lost.