Zucker: NBC May Scale Back Programming Hours

NEW YORK, December 9: Jeff
Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, told analysts at a media investor conference sponsored by investment banking
firm UBS that NBC is considering cutting the number of hours it provides
programming.

"Can we
continue to program 22 hours of prime time? Three of our competitors don't. Can
we afford to program seven nights a week? One of our competitors doesn't,"
said Zucker.

"All of
these questions have to be on the table. And we are actively looking at all of
those questions."

Zucker also acknowledged
the network's poor ratings performance: "We have not had a good fall at
NBC," he said. After foregoing the traditional pilot process in the wake
of the writers' strike, Zucker revealed the number of pilots for the 2009-2010
season would be significantly higher.

His comments come
just after NBCU announced several changes to its executive team, and last week
laid-off 500 employees as part of a plan to trim $500 million next year.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski