Exclusive Interview: NBCUniversal’s Jeff Shell

PREMIUM: Jeff Shell, the president of NBCUniversal International, talks to World Screen Newsflash about the growth opportunities for the company’s distribution, networks and production businesses.

Shell is responsible for several businesses, including international TV distribution, global television networks and international television production. He must also keep an eye out for international growth opportunities for NBCUniversal and Comcast Corporation, his division’s parent companies. He recently relocated to London from Philadelphia, where he was president of Comcast Programming Group, and has been restructuring NBCU’s international activities.

WS: What opportunities for growth do you see in the channel business and how do you identify markets that might be a good fit for one of your brands?
SHELL: One of the first things we did is combine our Universal Networks group with our TV sales operation. That’s important to understand because you walk into a territory with a number of different assets, and each territory has a unique set of variables to be considered. In some territories you might choose to only sell your content or have a limited network presence, while in other territories you may want to drive your network business and put a lot of your top-tier content on your own networks to make that happen. So, we’re really looking at it on a territory-by-territory basis. We already have pretty strong brands: Universal Channel, DIVA, Syfy, 13th Street, Studio Universal, E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network and CNBC. The challenge is trying to figure out the dynamics of each market.

WS: Do you think that the international channel business is still a good one? Does it still offer opportunities?
SHELL: The first thing I learned in this job is that there is no international. The U.K. is no more like France than France is like the U.S. International really is 50, 60 markets, so it really depends on the territory. In some territories, the channel business is really, really good because the pay-TV market hasn’t yet developed and you can expect strong growth in the future. Other territories are more similar to the U.S. where you have lots and lots of channels, lots and lots of advertising; and it’s getting a bit mature with consumers increasingly viewing content across multiple platforms and multiple devices. In those markets you can’t just launch a network like you did in the past; you have to be a little bit more innovative in finding your [growth]. It really depends on the markets—in some there is huge opportunity for traditional models, while in others you have to be a little bit more creative.

WS: NBCUniversal acquired Carnival Film & Television and Monkey Kingdom in the U.K. Do you have plans to acquire production companies in other territories?
SHELL: We recently acquired an interest in a production company in Australia called Matchbox Pictures. We definitely want to get behind the labels that we have like Carnival, which produced Downton Abbey, a huge international success, not just in the U.K. Monkey Kingdom and Chocolate Media are our factual-entertainment production entities, and Matchbox is highly regarded for its quality scripted television drama, as well as factual entertainment. For all our production brands, we want to give them the resources they need to ramp up their production slate. We’ll be opportunistic and look for other ways to invest—but we’re much more focused these days on increasing and supporting the entities we have as opposed to buying additional assets.

WS: What growth do you see in the international program-distribution business?
SHELL: I’m very, very optimistic about the TV-distribution business for a number of reasons. Number one, we have a very good business despite our U.S. content engine not operating on all cylinders. If you look at the shows we have to sell internationally, we’ve clearly been handicapped in recent years by the lack of hit dramas from the NBC network. The company is re-investing in the broadcast network, with Bob Greenblatt coming in as the chairman of NBC Entertainment. From the international TV distribution perspective, we’re looking forward to increased content coming from the U.S., which will help our business.

Secondly, one area often overlooked is the success of international sales for U.S. cable original productions, which has exploded in recent years. We have the number one leading U.S. cable channel, USA Network, and many of its shows, whether Covert Affairs or Suits or Royal Pains, sell extremely well internationally. This was my first year attending the NBCUniversal International screenings in May. The show Suits played as well as any drama we had. It shows that buyers aren’t as concerned anymore with where a show’s coming from—good content is good content.

The fact that we have not only the NBC network, but also cable networks like USA producing great content is really good for our distribution business. And lastly, we’ve already had some distribution success with local production from places like Carnival. The fact that we can sell local content combined with strong U.S. content positions us well to continue to grow our distribution business.